The emergence of AI technology is one of the more exciting developments of the past few years. AI has great potential to help with things like cancer screenings, weather predictions, medical diagnoses, strategic planning, and even new drug development. Yet, some have responded with fear and argue that AI needs to be heavily regulated.
One area that has been particularly challenging in relation to AI technology is deepfakes. AI can now make convincing duplicates of people’s faces, voices, and other aspects of their likeness. These deepfakes create new challenges for society and open the question of what regulation would be wise in balancing concerns with deepfakes and the potential of AI technology to improve society.
Dean Ball argues in his latest paper that statelawmakers should focus on post hoc laws as a partial solution.
Post hoc laws create civil or criminal liability for users who disseminate certain kinds of AI-generated content (nonconsensual sexually explicit matter, deepfakes of politicians running for elective office, and so on). Virtually all deepfake-related legislation passed by state governments to date have been post hoc laws.
There’s no silver bullet here, as no law is going to be able to completely eliminate bad actors from misusing AI, but there is a meaningful need for lawmakers to act. Read Dean’s research to learn more.
Why it matters: As AI technology grows, the balance between fear-mongering and needlessly squashing AI’s potential is delicate, and policymakers should be wise about trade-offs. Technology often outpaces the ability of lawmakers to keep up. This is why expertise from thinkers like Dean Ball is extraordinarily important.
Ben Brophy Director of Marketing
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
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