Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday that he will oppose bipartisan legislation set to pass the Senate Rules Committee that would ban the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create misleading content about federal candidates to influence elections.
McConnell, a longtime opponent of campaign finance restrictions, warned that the bills coming out of the Rules Committee “would interfere” with what he called a “well-developed legal regime” for weeding out false ads and “would create new definitions that could achieve good results.” in addition to deepfakes.”
He argued that if his colleagues on the Rules panel were shown a dozen political ads, they would “differ over which ones were intentionally misleading.”
“The central question we face is whether or not politicians should have another tool to take down speech they don’t like,” he said. “But if the amendment before us extends this authority to unpaid political speech, then we are also talking about an extension of speech regulation that has not happened in the 50 years of our modern campaign finance regime.”
The Protecting Elections from Misleading AI Act, which would prohibit the use of AI to create misleading content, is supported by Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo. ), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Michael Bennet (D-Col.), and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.).
But McConnell, citing testimony from Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), said the definitions in the bills to crack down on deepfakes are “nebulous at best and overly censorious if applied more cynically.”
“They could end up banning all types of photos and videos, as long as the ill-defined ‘reasonable person’ could deduce an alternative meaning from the content,” he said.
The Rules Committee on Wednesday also marked the AI Transparency in Elections Act, which requires liability disclaimers on political ads with AI-generated images, audio or video, and the Election Administrators for AI Readiness Act, which requires federal agencies develop voluntary guidelines for election offices.
McConnell said the proposal to require new disclaimers could be used to regulate content, which he opposes.
“I also have concerns about the disclaimer provisions and their enforcement. Our political disclaimer regime has, throughout its history, served a singular purpose: helping voters understand who is paying for or endorsing an ad. It has never been applied to political advertisements as a content regulation tool,” he stated.
He urged his colleagues to spend more time on the issue to reach consensus and announced that he would oppose advancing AI-related bills.
“Until Congress reaches a consensus on what AI is acceptable and what is not, leading with the chin will not be enough in the realm of political discourse. Therefore, I will oppose S. 2770 or S. 3875 at this time. And I would ask my colleagues to do the same,” he said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
