For the first time this year, Wisconsin will require political advertisers to disclose their use of content generated by artificial intelligence or face fines. But this battleground state, which played a key role in the past two elections, is not alone.
A new analysis from Voting Rights Lab, a national voting rights organization, shows that a growing number of states are moving forward with AI-related legislation to counter attempts to mislead voters in 2024 elections. It was revealed.
The Voting Rights Institute says more than 100 bills have been approved in 40 state legislatures amid several high-profile cases of “deepfake” video technology and computer-generated avatars and voices being used in political campaigns and advertising. announced that they are tracking.
One of the more notable examples occurred in New Hampshire, where voters received robocalls imitating President Biden's voice and urging them not to vote for Democrats in the state's primary in January, leading to criminal charges. An investigation has begun.
In another example that marred Slovakia's elections last year, a deepfake audio recording purporting to be from the leader of a pro-Western party depicted him buying votes. The party narrowly lost to a pro-Kremlin party.
In Wisconsin, political advertisers would be fined $1,000 for each violation under a bill signed Thursday by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
A similar bill in Florida has been approved by both chambers of the state Legislature and is being reviewed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. A spokesperson for Mr. DeSantis said he has not yet received the final version of the bill, which includes both civil and criminal penalties.
In Arizona, the state Senate and state legislature passed their own bill banning the use of deepfakes and synthetic images. Each chamber's bills have not yet been taken up by the other chambers. One version would make engaging in deepfakes a crime only within 90 days of an election. Repeated violations will result in a felony.
States such as California, Texas, Washington, Minnesota, and Michigan already have laws regulating the use of AI in campaign advertising.