‘The FEC has abdicated its responsibility by failing to address the use of deepfakes in political ads,’ Issue One says

In response to the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) failure to clarify regulatory rules to prevent the use of deceptive generative artificial intelligence (AI) in political campaign ads, Issue One released the following statement from technology expert and Campaigns Manager Liana Keesing:

“New technologies like AI offer the potential to do so much good in the world — but that doesn’t mean we should let them run rampant over our democracy. We’ve already seen AI disrupt elections in Taiwan, Slovakia, India, and other democracies around the world, and the AI-generated robocall that imitated the voice of President Biden earlier this year highlights serious risks for the integrity of our information ecosystem. Yet the agency that should care about this issue the most — the FEC — has abdicated responsibility altogether by failing to establish any rules about the use of generative AI in political campaigns.

“Agency regulations are no long-term substitute for legislative action, and Congress still needs to pass responsible safeguards to mitigate these serious concerns. But clarifying existing FEC guidance that ‘fraudulent misrepresentation’ includes the use of deceptive generative AI should be a commonsense step to help protect against the use of deepfakes in our elections.

“If the FEC refuses to act, leaders in Congress must work together to tackle this threat.”