Federal Elections Commission Takes on AI Deepfakes Ahead of the 2024 Elections

The U.S. Federal Election Fee has moved ahead a petition to ban the usage of synthetic intelligence in marketing campaign adverts main into the 2024 election season. The company is now looking for public feedback on the petition earlier than continuing with “full rulemaking.”

In July, the FEC stated it obtained a petition asking for brand spanking new guidelines surrounding the usage of AI-generated content material throughout elections. The petition particularly known as upon the FEC to amend laws relating to fraudulent misrepresentation of “marketing campaign authority” and make clear that the prohibition applies to intentionally misleading AI marketing campaign commercials.

“The deepfake is fraudulent as a result of the deepfaked candidate, in truth, didn’t say or do what’s depicted by the deepfake and since the deepfake goals to deceive the general public,” the petition stated.

A deepfake is an more and more frequent kind of video or audio content material created with synthetic intelligence that convincingly depicts false occasions however is completed so in a means that may be very troublesome to determine as faux.

An FEC spokesperson instructed Decrypt that extra feedback are being sought, and referenced two prior hearings on July 13 and August 10, the place members of the fee mentioned and heard testimony on the petition.

Whereas the petition was superior unanimously, some voiced concern over the precedent it would set.

“There are critical First Modification considerations lurking within the background of this effort,” FEC Commissioner Allen Dickerson stated throughout an open FEC assembly final week. “Precision of regulation is a requirement in our work. And if the fee has authority to behave on this space, I hope that commentators may also exhibit that it’s doable to tailor a regulation to actually fraudulent exercise with out slowing protected expression.”

The petition, the FEC defined, claims that generative AI and deepfake expertise are being “used to create convincing pictures, audio, and video hoaxes.” Current examples of AI-generated deepfakes rising on-line seem to help the petition’s declare.

The FEC’s statutes, Dickerson stated, prohibits an individual from fraudulently misrepresenting themselves as performing for or on behalf of one other candidate, however not the candidate itself.

“The statute is rigorously restricted and is directed at fraudulent company,” Dickerson stated. “In different phrases, it is directed at fraudulently pretending that you simply your self symbolize or work for an additional candidate. It doesn’t attain fraudulently claiming that your opponent stated or did one thing that she or he didn’t do.”

In Could, a GOP marketing campaign video launched on YouTube used AI-generated pictures to indicate the aftermath of the potential reelection of U.S. President Joe Biden. That video got here after the marketing campaign of Donald Trump used AI deepfakes to troll Florida Governor and rival for the GOP nomination, Ron DeSantis, after a rocky begin to his Presidential marketing campaign.

In June, the United Nations sounded the alarm on the potential use of AI-generated deepfakes on social media, notably in battle zones the place the misleading pictures may gasoline hate and violence.

The specter of AI-generated deepfakes has even led Pope Francis to speak in regards to the expertise in an upcoming sermon for World Peace Day.

Final month, a Los Angeles-based political satirist, Justin Brown, got here beneath hearth for posting AI-generated pictures that confirmed Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden dishonest on their spouses. The pictures had been all faux however confirmed the facility of generative AI to create lifelike replicas of outstanding folks.

The Federal Elections Fee is asking for public feedback on the petition earlier than transferring ahead on any modifications to marketing campaign guidelines. The FEC says feedback have to be submitted inside 60 days of the petition’s publication within the federal register.