N.Y. policy tries to combat deepfakes in elections

ALBANY, NY (Erie News Now)--WITH MANY ELECTIONS ON THE HORIZON, STATE LAWMAKERS IN ALBANY PASS POLICY TO COMBAT THE USE OF DEEPFAKES IN ELECTIONS.  

“That will help ensure that what voters are seeing in campaign ads and in other productions are true to what actually occurred and will help to protect our elections,” said Assembly Member Alex Bores (D-Assembly District 73).

THE LEGISLATION REQUIRES distributors OR PUBLISHERS TO disclose THE USE OF GENERATIVE AI IN CAMPAIGNS.  

IT ALSO GIVES THE CANDIDATE A RIGHT TO SUE AND A COURT CAN ORDER THE distributor TO STOP PRODUCING THE DEEP FAKE WITHOUT PUTTING THE PROPER DISCLOSURE ON IT.  

BORES EMPHASIZES THAT GENERATIVE AI HAS MADE AN EASY AND CHEAP WAY TO CREATE A REALISTIC representation OF ANOTHER PERSON WITH PHOTO, VIDEO AND AUDIO.  

“We’ve had now by analogy 20 years to get used to spam emails and we all know we have a filter that ‘hey if I get an email, I don’t just believe the text of it.’ We haven’t had that same time to adjust to these incredibly realistic reproductions of human behavior,” said Bores. 

SOME EXPERTS SAid THIS POLICY COULD REDUCE THE WORST OF BAD ACTORS PERPETUATING MISINFORMATION BUT IT WON’T COMPLETELY PREVENT THE ISSUE FROM OCCURRING.  

“You’re not going to stop misinformation. We might not like this fact but lying in politics is a time-honored tradition and is in fact protected speech,” said Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at SUNY Buffalo.