Arizona lawmaker says ChatGPT helped write new law on deepfakes

An Arizona state lawmaker said the artificial intelligence (AI) system ChatGPT helped write new deepfake legislation that was signed into law this week.

Republican state Rep. Alex Kolodin said he used ChatGPT to write a subsection of House Bill 2394 that addresses AI-related impersonations of people, allowing Arizona residents to legally assert that they do not appear in deepfake videos.

“I used it to write the part of the bill that had to do with defining what a deepfake was,” said Kolodin NBC News. “I was really struggling with the technical aspects of how to define what a deepfake was,” he said. “So I thought to myself, ‘Well, why not ask the subject matter expert, ChatGPT?’”

The bill was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Tuesday. The legislation allows Arizona residents to obtain a court order declaring that the person identified in the deepfake video is not them.

Kolodin said the parts created by ChatGPT were accurate.

“In fact, the part of the bill that ChatGPT wrote was probably one of the least changed parts,” he said.

Hobbs was unaware of the portion of the legislation that ChatGPT authored.

“I wanted it to be a surprise when the project was signed,” Kolodin said, noting that this was part of the plan.

States across the country have introduced bills addressing deepfakes, with a focus on curbing the negative effects of AI before November.

Actress Scarlett Johansson said she was “shocked” and “angry” on Monday after OpenAI released an AI assistant with a voice that she said sounded similar to her voice.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story