Gavin Newsom chuckles as he signs bills restricting AI use in election ads — but social media users may have last laugh– www.theblaze.com
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AB 2655, also known as the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024, requires online platforms “to block the posting of materially deceptive content related to elections in California” and “to label certain additional content inauthentic, fake, or false” during designated periods before and after an election.
AB 2355 expands upon existing law and requires a committee that creates, publishes, and/or distributes some political advertising to add a “disclosure” noting when an ad has been “generated or substantially altered” using AI. The bill addresses “any image, audio, or video that is generated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence” that would give a reasonable person “a fundamentally different understanding of the altered media when comparing it to an unaltered version.”
AB 2839 also builds upon existing law that already prohibits people from knowingly distributing, with malice, election material containing “certain materially deceptive content.” Previous law required this statute to be enforced 60 days before an election. It will now be enforced 120 days before an election and, in certain cases, up to 60 days afterward.
In a statement, Newsom insisted these speech restrictions were necessary for the sake of democracy.
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation – especially in today’s fraught political climate,” Newsom said. “These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI.”