I want you to imagine something:

• It’s the night before Election Day. You’re relaxing in front of the TV.

• A video comes on showing your senator — who is known for his “family man” image and is up for reelection — snorting cocaine at a wild party.

• The video instantly goes viral, and is all over the news and social media.

• A few hours later, late at night, he holds a furious press conference and says the video is fake.

• But it sure looks real. And many people think his denial seems disingenuous.

• You had planned to vote for him. Now you’re not sure. But you don’t want to vote for his opponent — she’s from the other party, after all — so you just skip over “U.S. Senate” on your ballot the next day.

• When the votes are counted, the senator — who had been slightly ahead in all the polls — loses a close election.

• And his loss shifts the balance of power in the entire Senate to the other party.

Now, what if it was all made up?

The video turned out to be a “deepfake” — a sound, image, or video generated using artificial intelligence (AI) technology that is essentially indistinguishable from the real thing — manufactured by the other candidate’s political party.

Control of the Senate flipped due to AI trickery. And our democracy — imperfect as it may already have been — suffered a potentially fatal blow.

This is not science fiction.

Dangerous artificial intelligence technology is already powerful enough — right now — to make deepfakes that are essentially indistinguishable from the real thing.

And AI is in fact already being used — nefariously yet effectively — in real-world elections both here in America and elsewhere in the world.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the government agency that is *supposed* to safeguard the fairness and integrity of our elections.

Public Citizen has formally petitioned the FEC to issue clear rules — before it’s too late — that will minimize the chances of deepfakes undermining the 2024 election.

But the FEC is dragging its feet, with potentially disastrous ramifications for the upcoming presidential election and our very democracy.

Join Public Citizen in a direct message for the Federal Election Commission:

The American people urgently need the FEC to act — before it is too late for the 2024 election — on the threat that political deepfakes pose to the very core of our democracy.

Click to add your name now.

Thanks for taking action.

For democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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