Controlling AI in 2024 election
An AI-generated voice that sounded like President Biden and tried to discourage voters from taking part in last month's New Hampshire primary is proof that artificial intelligence is a threat to public trust and can discourage voter participation, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, a Santa Cruz Democrat, told CalMatters. That's why she will soon propose a bill to ban “materially deceptive” election-related deepfakes 120 days before election day and 60 days after.
Pellerin: “We have to stay ahead of the deepfakes and bad actors that are out there trying to wreak chaos with our elections.” It's one of five bills getting introduced in the Legislature this week designed to protect democratic discourse, voters, candidates and election officials from deceptive content.
The other four bills would:
Require generative AI companies to embed digital provenance data within the digital media they create;
Require social media platforms to identify and label images, audio and video generated by AI;
Require generative AI companies to supply tools to verify whether a photo is real or fake;
Encourage identity verification of social media accounts meeting certain follower thresholds so users know whether a person or an automated bot is behind the account.
The bills are cosponsored by the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, a multidisciplinary nonprofit group formed in 2023 to protect elections from harmful or malicious forms of AI. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission made robocalls with AI-generated voices illegal.
An October UC Berkeley poll found that seven out of 10 registered voters in California want lawmakers to protect the public from technology in the upcoming election.
Dozens of bills have been introduced in the Legislature this year to regulate AI. Procurement policy that determines what kind of contracts state agencies can sign with private companies and proofs of concepts ordered by a Newsom executive order are also underway.
Other Legislative news: Another deadline week for CA Legislature
The Friday deadline for state lawmakers to introduce bills is fast approaching, and according to longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli, 675 bills have been proposed as of Monday. That number is expected to increase a lot by the end of the week (in fact, Micheli anticipates 1,500 more bills by then), though even legislators themselves know not all the bills they introduce are meant to become law.
A few new interesting proposals: Autonomous trucks: Assemblymembers from both parties and Teamsters leaders rallied near the state Capitol Monday to promote a bill to require self-driving trucks to have a backup “human safety operator.” If that sounds familiar, that's because lawmakers pushed a similar measure last year, which Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately vetoed. But since his veto, Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, a Democrat from Davis and the bill's author, has been promoted to Assembly majority leader. And an accident involving a Cruise robotaxi has halted the expansion of autonomous vehicle fleets in California. Legislators and Teamsters hope that the reignited public safety concerns (and perhaps the negative public sentiment) will help drive Assembly Bill 2286 past the finish line.
Indigenous rights: Monday marked the start of the two-day Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Summit in Sacramento, where state officials and tribal leaders gathered to advocate for two measures: AB 2138, which would grant certain tribal police officers the legal status of California peace officers; and AB 2108 to establish additional notification procedures for social workers and probation officers when a child in the foster care system goes missing (a measure similar to one the governor vetoed last year.)
Democratic Assemblymember Esmerelda Soria of Merced also introduced a proposal last week to grant tribal judges some of the same privacy and safety protections as state and federal judges.
Black maternal mortality: Following a state Department of Justice investigation that found that California hospitals are largely ignoring a 2019 law that requires them to train perinatal care providers on racial disparities in maternal deaths, Attorney General Rob Bonta and members of the California Legislative Black Caucus unveiled a proposal Monday to bring more hospitals under compliance. AB 2319 would, among other things, clarify what employee positions need anti-bias training; set deadlines for completing training; and establish penalties for facilities that don't comply.