Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Political observers from all sides, as well as technologists, have been warning about artificial intelligence being used for malign political ends.
In the hands of bad actors, AI can be used to generate fake images, audio and videos with the power to stoke outrage, spread disinformation and even incite violence. Even for well-intentioned users, AI can produce biased and misleading information that can negatively influence public opinion. Despite these risks, in the 2024 campaign, we’re beginning to see AI in action, as well as signs of unscrupulous political operators exploring the technology’s power to manipulate.
Last year, the Republican National Committee created an attack ad against President Joe Biden featuring AI-generated imagery of post-apocalyptic American streets.
In even darker exploitation of the technology, an ad created by the Ron DeSantis campaign contained fake AI-generated images of former President Donald Trump embracing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is abhorred by the far-right.
These ads hint at the power of AI to not just amplify misinformation but to fabricate evidence and create false histories in support of illegitimate claims.
People exploiting this technology seek to blind the public to truth and facts while driving the public down maddening rabbit holes of lies and manipulation. It’s QAnon on steroids.
Even when the information or images presented are authentic, bad actors may use the excuse of “it’s just AI” to try to disavow actual things they did or said — a ready-made excuse to dupe the gullible.
Under any circumstances, addressing the use of AI in political ads is a burning issue, and it’s not clear that the media and our legal frameworks are prepared to correct the record against floods of fake malicious AI video and audio in the political sphere.
Political lies have been around since the beginning of politics. Compared with some campaign and news pamphlets from the 1800s, today’s lies are positively mild. However, AI allows misinformation to spread at industrial scale and assault an entire population with propaganda and paranoid incitements all at once.
Importantly, the political actors involved do not necessarily have to be campaign staff. Foreign governments and terrorist organizations can also flood the information sphere with lies. Nor will it be simply on the TV airwaves — the toxic lint of these lies will pack internet and create fires everywhere.
For voters less concerned with information or verification, the existence of AI-generated content is yet another reason to simply assume that any evidence that runs counter to preexisting beliefs must be fake. It also gives a public disgusted with a climate polluted with lies a reason to check out of the democratic process entirely. Experts have also raised the alarm that well done AI fakes could create false memories that people carry even after the lie has been debunked.
Fortunately, there are forces of truth at work. Responsible news organizations and watchdogs that place facts over partisan politics have the ability to correct the record and out those who seek to fill the world with lies.
Furthermore, with some refinement of American libel laws, there could be legal consequences for people improperly using an individual’s likeness to promulgate lies. And all of this is yet another reason to reform Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, to make internet sites that deliberately distribute material to targeted audiences (via algorithms) responsible in the same way publishers are.
Additionally, several Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to limit the use of AI in specific circumstances, including in political ads.
The REAL Political Advertisements Act, introduced by Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., would require political advertisements to prominently disclose when an ad was created using generative AI.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, which would prohibit the distribution of AI-generated ads, images or audio related to candidates for federal office that are “materially deceptive.”
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has also begun the process of rulemaking around AI, inviting comments on whether current rules should be updated to clarify and specify that “fraudulent misrepresentation” includes “deliberately false AI-generated content in ads or other communications.”
However, none of these proposals has yet been implemented and there are currently no federal limits on the use of AI in political advertisements, even if the ad is intentionally deceptive. Given the inability of the current Congress to pass much of anything in 2023, the lack of federal regulation is likely to remain the status quo as we head into this year’s elections.
Fortunately, states are being somewhat more proactive.
According to Pillsbury, an international law firm with a particular focus on technology, 13 states now have statutes or legislation governing the use of AI in political advertising. Of those, four are governed by a Republican legislative trifecta and seven are governed by a Democratic legislative trifecta. They include the Democratic strongholds of California, New York and Illinois, and the Republican strongholds of Texas, Florida and South Carolina, showing that the issue crosses traditional partisan lines.
Additionally, there is good reason to hope that additional states will take action this year. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 30 states have laws on the books that address AI in some capacity, meaning that champions for AI regulation already exist and have demonstrated a capacity to build successful legislative coalitions that could be used to regulate AI in political advertising.
Congress and lawmakers in states that have yet to regulate AI should take heed and recognize that the time to act is now, while the number of candidates, campaigns and consultants who are fluent in the use of this powerful tool is still limited.
Nevada, unfortunately, will not have another legislative session prior to this year’s elections. We may soon find ourselves treated as lab rats for campaigns testing the limits of appropriate use of technology that can challenge the very nature of evidence-based knowledge and information.As such, we implore Congress to take swift action and keep AI out of political advertising.
