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WASHINGTON — Democrats on Capitol Hill are forming a recent working group on artificial intelligence and prioritizing tips on how to prevent deepfakes from wreaking havoc on personal lives, national security and the upcoming 2024 elections.
Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., will chair the brand new AI working group within the Recent Democrat Coalition, a 97-member bloc of House members that typically avoid the highlight but wield significant influence over policy inside the caucus.
Lawmakers will give attention to several priorities, including utilizing opportunities from AI and ensuring staff who lose their jobs AI might be retrained and remain within the workforce.
Nevertheless it’s deepfakes which can be poised to be a very salient issue, due to how they might be used to spread misinformation. This might range from foreign states spreading political disinformation, to AI getting used to create fake media to break an individuals’ popularity.
“There’s real concern concerning the potential for AI generated disinformation, real concern about misuse of advanced AI models,” Kilmer told CNBC. “And that is the style of thing that requires Congress to get smart and get smart fast.”
Kilmer previously was a part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers within the House and the Senate that urged the Homeland Security Department to deliver an annual report on digital developments in forgery.
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), one other member of the Recent Dems working group, introduced laws that will make it a criminal offense to share AI generated images that show real people in fake, compromising situations.
A 2019 report found that 96% of all deepfake videos were non-consensual and pornographic.
One other concerning aspect for a lot of lawmakers is what AI generated images could mean on the planet of campaign ads.
A political committee supporting Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently used AI in an ad to copy former president Donald Trump’s voice “reading” a post that Trump had written on social media.
A separate ad from the Republican National Committee contained AI generated images of hypothetical catastrophes that might occur during a second term for President Joe Biden, akin to Taiwan being bombed by China.
A bill to require ads to reveal the use AI-generated images or video was introduced within the Senate by Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar in May.
The Recent Dems working group is the most recent In a series of AI-focused study groups created by members of Congress as debate over the difficulty has ramped up on Capitol Hill and beyond.
There are actually bipartisan caucuses in each the House and the Senate, in addition to a casual working group assembled by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), tasked with drafting a slate of bipartisan bills that may function a foundation for future AI laws.
That work continues to be in its early stages, nonetheless, and It isn’t clear when Congress could begin voting on AI bills.
