The state of California recently launched an initiative called the California Institute for Technology and Democracy (CITED), which aims to combat “threats that artificial intelligence, disinformation, deepfakes, and other emerging technologies pose to our election.”
“The 2024 election is the nation’s first full-fledged AI election, and AI-generated deepfakes will become a routine part of our information ecosystems, where voters will not know what images, audio, and video they can trust,” California Common Cause states. “Some such threats are already emerging. With our federal government not positioned to take the urgent action necessary, and with Sacramento missing an unbiased, nonpartisan authority to lead efforts against such threats, CITED seeks to help California fill that leadership gap.”
According to CITED’s website, the program’s agenda will include “providing expertise to Sacramento policymakers, mass education to voters, and thought-leadership and unbiased analysis in the press and to civil society.”
All policy recommendations will be “divorced from partisanship and ideology — safeguarding our democracy matters to every Californian regardless of party — and will be vetted by CITED leaders coming from tech, finance, law, public policy, academia, civil rights, and civic engagement,” it explains.
Minority Leader Emeritus and former State Assemblymember and State Senator Sam Blakeslee said in a statement, “I am a Republican who is proud to serve on CITED’s board. Having served in the Legislature and having founded an institute at the intersections of technology and public policy, I know that Sacramento does not have a source of expertise that is unbiased and independent of industry on the question of tech regulation. CITED is sorely needed.”
Details of the proposed measures remain unknown.
