| Friend, Fake video, images, and audio created by artificial intelligence -- or AI -- are becoming a major problem in our elections. Last month, Elon Musk shared an AI-generated deepfake of VP Kamala Harris degrading herself and saying she was “a deep state puppet.” It got more than 150 million views in a single week.(1) The voices and images of President Joe Biden, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and countless other politicians have been manipulated by AI to spread dangerous misinformation.(2) Congress won’t act. But California has just set the gold standard for combatting AI election disinformation, and now we need states around the country to follow its lead. The breakneck speed at which generative AI has evolved makes it increasingly hard to tell the difference between authentic, human-generated content and synthetic content generated by AI. A Brookings report in January helped sound the alarm, saying, “generative AI content has the potential to turbocharge campaigns designed to undermine democratic discourse.”(3) But Republicans in Congress don’t want to solve the problem. That’s why states must step up -- and California just set the bar high. Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed a suite of nation-leading bills that ban deepfakes of candidates, elected officials, and elections officials in political advertising or other election communications during election season.(4) The new laws also require an AI watermark and detection tool to root out unauthorized alterations. (5) California leading the way is excellent. But we need to combat deepfakes across the country, because every single vote counts. –Irene, Annie, Angela, Isidra, Mario, Marvin, Alyssa, Jen, Cecilia, and Lindsay (the Courage team)
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