The California legislature has approved several bills designed to combat “deceptive” content relating to state elections.
One bill, called “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” requires “large” platforms to “block the posting of materially deceptive content related to elections in California, during specified periods before and after an election.”
“The bill would require a large online platform to label certain additional content inauthentic, fake, or false during specified periods before and after an election in California,” it continues.
“California is entering its first-ever generative artificial intelligence (AI) election, in which disinformation powered by generative AI will pollute our information ecosystems like never before,” a background statement says. “Voters will not know what images, audio, or video they can trust.”
Another bill, the “Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act,” demands that AI developers implement a “capability to promptly enact a full shutdown” and “implement a written and separate safety and security protocol.”
AI developers are to take “reasonable care” to ensure that the program does not pose an “unreasonable risk of causing or enabling a critical harm.”
Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30 to sign the bills. He wrote in July that he would be “signing a bill in a matter of weeks” to combat fake AI content.
