The California Government has recently undertaken significant steps to combat the misuse of deep fakes, especially during the elections in 2024. On Tuesday, September 17^th Gavin Newsome, the 40^th Governor of California, signed three bills to crack down on using artificial intelligence to create misleading or false content in political ads before the elections. 

According to the new laws, it is now illegal to create and publish deepfakes related to elections 120 days ahead of the election day and 60 days thereafter. This step allows the court to cease the distribution of materials and impose civil penalties.

Here are recently enacted three significant laws to combat the use of deep fakes particularly in the context of the 2024 elections:

• Article 2355: This law includes political advertisements that are generated using AI to be clearly labeled. It aims to ensure transparency and help voters to identify manipulated content.

• Article 2655: It mandates a ban on social media platforms particularly with more than one million California users like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) from sharing or posting deceptive content regarding elections during this specified period.

• Article 1836:  Under this law, requires studios and employers to obtain consent or permission before using Artificial Intelligence.

The proactive measures are taken by the California government to safeguard the integrity and fair play of elections and protect individuals from the misuse of AI technology.

Ensuring Integrity of Elections  

Gavin Newsome, the California Governor, emphasized on safeguarding the integrity of elections for democracy and ensuring the right use of AI. He outlined that these measures will be helpful to combat the harmful use of deepfakes, especially in political ads and other election-related content. One of the areas in which the state is being proactive is fostering transparency and trustworthy AI.

Newsome further also shared a requirement to remove misleading or deceptive content from large social media platforms under a first-in-the-nation law which is set to be enacted next year.

 A Challenge to Social Media Companies 

Meanwhile, the laws are expected to face legal challenges from Social Media companies or groups focusing on free speech rights. AI tools are used to produce realistic-looking pictures, movies, audio clips, mimic real people, etc. Due to this, today, the technology has been widely used for scams, producing non-consensual pornography, and spreading false information about politics, even though it has been created for jokes and artwork.

Receives Wide Bipartisan Support

The new laws in California support state-wide efforts to stop the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) scams related to elections and sexual content. However, the regulation has received wide bipartisan support. While some have regulated deepfakes related to elections, the majority concentrate on deep-fake pornography.

Despite California policymakers and government having shown extreme interest in imposing laws against the unethical use of AI and companies to test the safety of their AI tools before releasing them publicly, there is currently no federal law that bans or even regulates deepfakes, though several have been imposed now.