JUST IN: Amy Klobuchar Introduces Bill To 'Ban AI Generated Deepfakes Of Federal Candidates'

2 months ago

Sen. Amy Klobuchar brought a bill up under a unanimous consent order on the Senate floor to ban the use of AI generated deepfakes of federal candidates.

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Transcript

00:00Madam President. Senator from Minnesota. Madam President, I thank the leader for his support

00:05for these bills, but also for his bipartisan work on artificial intelligence, including the group

00:11that he put together with Senator Heinrich and Senator Rounds and Senator Young to really lead

00:16a bipartisan effort. One of the major focuses of that effort has been doing something on the

00:22democracy front. And while some of these bills actually passed through the Commerce Committee

00:27today on a bipartisan basis, to start the initial work of some sensible guardrails on AI,

00:36the democracy work actually can't wait. Because as the leader pointed out, we are less than

00:41100 days from this election, and we're seeing states act across the country, red states,

00:48blue states, purple states, putting some simple rules in place for this new,

00:54sophisticated technology. I always believe that our laws have to be as sophisticated

00:59as those that are trying to mess with them. And we cannot simply stand by on the federal basis for

01:05the federal elections. We're not talking about messing around with their state rules. They're

01:10doing their own rules. We're talking about federal elections when it comes to involvement with AI.

01:17AI, as we know, is set to become one of the most significant technological advances of our time,

01:23like with any emerging technology. It brings tremendous opportunities, but it also brings

01:29tremendous risks and uncertainties. I think David Brooks, the columnist, put it well when he wrote,

01:35the people in AI seem to be experiencing radically different brain states all at once. I found it

01:41incredibly hard to write about AI, he said, because it is literally unknowable whether this technology

01:48is leading us to heaven or hell. Well, it's on us right now, as the elected representatives of the

01:54people of this country, to make the decision of what fork are we going to go on. If we put no

01:59guardrails in place when it comes to scams, when it comes to messing around with people's intellectual

02:07property rights, when it comes to national security, when it comes to democracy, which is

02:12our topic today, then we are not going to unleash the potential and the great opportunities of AI

02:18because we will not have put the guardrails in place to make it safe. This means protecting

02:24ourselves from the significant risks AI poses without stifling innovation and working to

02:30preserve trust in business, government, and our elections as we all adapt to this rapidly

02:36advancing technology. With this year's election so soon in front of us, we must put in place these

02:43common sense rules. We have heard repeatedly about the potential of AI to upend our elections.

02:50All of our witnesses from both parties agreed that this was a threat when we had our hearing

02:57and at the bipartisan AI forum that I just mentioned, there was consensus that federal

03:02legislation is necessary, that disclaimers are not enough in some cases, and that it is critical

03:09to our national security. By the way, these AI videos or robo fake robo calls or videos of people

03:17that aren't really the candidates you don't like or you do like, if you don't know who you are

03:23watching, how are you going to be able to make your decision as a citizen in this great democracy?

03:30And by the way, these could be promoted by foreign governments, by foreign countries. We have seen

03:36this in Canada where they just completed an investigation and found that China had meddled

03:42in their elections, in their elections for parliament seats. This is happening right now

03:47and we need the ability to take these things off or at least label them so people know what they

03:53are viewing and what they are listening to. This is a hair on fire moment. AI has the potential to

04:01turbocharge the spread of disinformation and deceive voters. This is happening to candidates

04:09on both sides. In the New Hampshire primary on the Republican side, a video was released with fake AI

04:16generated images of former President Trump hugging Dr. Fauci. That wasn't true. We've seen AI

04:23being used to generate viral misleading content about our colleagues in this chamber, including

04:30a fake video with Elizabeth Warren that wasn't really Elizabeth Warren telling people that she

04:35didn't think that Republicans should be allowed to vote. Complete lie. It wasn't her, but it looked

04:42like her and talked like her. We have seen this all over the country and that is why states have

04:51been acting. 18 states across the country have already passed laws in this area, including my

04:58home state of Minnesota, which banned deep fakes of candidates 90 days before an election. Texas has

05:06a ban on deep fake videos of candidates and that passed unanimously. The Minnesota bill was, I think,

05:12one person voted against it. Democrats and Republicans joined together to say we're not

05:18going to have these deep fakes because they could happen on either side and our citizens aren't going

05:22to know who they're looking at and if it's the real Donald Trump or if it's the real Kamala Harris

05:27or if it is the real Amy Klobuchar or the real Senator Fischer. Other states who've done something

05:34on this. Alabama. These have been mostly disclaimers. Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii,

05:43Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.

05:50If you listen to those states, you're not like, oh those are all blue states, oh those are all red

05:55states. Those are governors and legislatures that decided we cannot just take this as it's not going

06:01to be a problem and it's all fun and games. They've decided we've got to make sure our citizens know

06:07for state political advertising what is going on here. Some tech companies are also taking action

06:14because they know that this technology has the potential to sow chaos in elections.

06:20But we cannot rely on a patchwork of state laws for just about half the states, that's probably

06:25what it'll end up being, and voluntary commitments as important as those are. That's why as chair of

06:32the Rules Committee, we held the markup in May where we passed three bipartisan bills to take

06:38this head on. I'm calling on the Senate today to pass first of all the bipartisan bill with Senator

06:46Hawley, is the lead Republican with me on this bill, with Senator Coons, Senator Susan Collins,

06:54Senator Bennett, and many others to ban AI generated deep fakes of federal candidates

07:00within the framework of the Constitution. So what does that mean? Well that means an exception for

07:07parody and satire as well as reporting by news organizations. So we drafted this bill with

07:14Democratic and Republican lawyers in a way that it could be upheld in court under the Constitution.

07:22Our bill is supported by a bipartisan group of more than 40 national security experts

07:27and current former government officials including former Secretaries of Defense, Chuck Hagel, a

07:33Republican, and Leon Panetta, a Democrat, and Secretaries of State from both parties. It was

07:39also endorsed by the former Republican Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trevor Potter,

07:45as well as tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce. These companies actually want

07:52to be able to say this is a deep fake, it's not the actual candidate, and there's a law that says

07:59we have to take it down. That's what this is about as well as allowing the defamed candidate, the

08:06person that is not really the person in the video or the ad or the robocall, to sue whoever has

08:12done this to them. That is the way in other areas in our law we're able to stop bad contact.

08:20In the House, a bipartisan companion bill is led by Representative Derek Kilmer of Washington

08:26and Tony Gonzalez of Texas. With election day approaching, we have the opportunity to come

08:32together on a bipartisan basis to counter the threats that AI poses to our elections and protect

08:38public trust and faith in our democracy. Now there's a second bill that I will call for in a

08:44moment, but that deals with things that are maybe parody or things that don't rise to the level of

08:51the deep fakes or are in a different category that could complement this bill as well. But this is

08:58for the worst of the worst. And that is why we've had strong support from a conservative like Senator

09:05Hawley, who certainly is aware of what the Constitution says and what our rights are.

09:11Moderate Republican like Senator Susan Collins and many others to support this bill.

09:17So now I'll call for this bill as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22,

09:23I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number

09:29388 as 2770. Further that the committee reported substitute amendment be agreed to,

09:35the bill as amendment be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be

09:40considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

JUST IN: Amy Klobuchar Introduces Bill To 'Ban AI Generated Deepfakes Of Federal Candidates'

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