Colorado AI deepfake bill seeks to combat election disinformation

Colorado legislators hope to combat disinformation spread by artificial intelligence deepfakes by requiring disclaimers on all AI-made political communications.

A deepfake is synthetic media of a person in which their face, body or voice has been digitally manipulated to replace that person's likeness.

HB24-1147, the Candidate Election Deepfake Disclosures Bill, was introduced Jan. 29 and, if passed, would require a disclosure, similar to political advertisement, on any deepfake AI communication related to a candidate for elective office. That means candidates would be able to rightfully sue the creators of the deepfake.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold said AI poses a threat with the spread of disinformation, especially during an election year.

"I think AI is potentially dangerous to our elections and democracy, in part because it can charge cyberattacks — and its ability to supercharge disinformation and deepfakes are part of that," Griswold said.

"There have even been deepfakes of me, but I'm not concerned about someone making me look deformed. I'm concerned about a deepfake of Tom Cruise doing a backflip saying there's no election this year."

Is Colorado's proposed AI bill too late?

Bills can take months to pass, and especially with the details needed to define what AI is, the bill still has a journey to become law.

Griswold explained that this bill will likely need additional counsel to answer the big questions like "What is AI?" and that can take time. The bill will also go through a public comment period to establish additional rules before it is finalized.

Griswold believes the bill will be established before Election Day on Nov. 5. Until then, she said voters should be wary of information they see online when it comes to elections.

How can voters believe anything they see?

Voters should look for information from official government sites and official candidate sites rather than candidate videos, photos or audio posted on unofficial pages.

"We are tied for No. 1 in percentage of confidence in our election system because we have been very aggressive in countering this information to alert Coloradoans that what they see isn't true," Griswold said.

Griswold believes the bill, if passed, will help build voter confidence.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado AI deepfake bill would require deepfake disclaimers