TLDR:
- Minority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes bipartisan legislation to ban the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create deceptive content about federal candidates.
- McConnell argues that the bills would tamper with existing legal regimes and create new definitions that could reach beyond deepfakes.
In a recent article by Alexander Bolton for The Hill, the focus is on McConnell’s opposition to the bill that would ban the use of AI to influence elections. McConnell, a longtime opponent of campaign finance restrictions, voiced his concerns about the legislation coming out of the Senate Rules Committee. The proposed bills, supported by several senators, would ban the use of AI to create misleading content about federal candidates to influence elections. McConnell believes that the bills would tamper with existing legal processes for handling misleading political ads and create new definitions that could extend to other forms of content beyond deepfakes.
According to McConnell, the core issue at hand is whether politicians should have the power to take down speech they disagree with. He expressed concern that the bills could lead to an extension of speech regulation that has not been seen in the modern campaign finance regime. McConnell highlighted the nebulous definitions in the bills and warned that they could potentially censor a wide range of content if applied in a cynical manner.
The bills, including the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, the AI Transparency in Elections Act, and the Preparing Election Administrators for AI Act, all cleared the Rules Committee despite McConnell’s opposition. He urged his colleagues to spend more time on the issue to reach a consensus understanding of AI regulation before moving forward with the proposed legislation.