Deceptive Audio or Visual Media (‘Deepfakes’) 2024 Legislation
National Conference of State Legislatures
The National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) possesses a State Legislation Database covering legislative proposals on deepfakes. The website defines ‘deepfake technology’ as the application of artificial intelligence towards audio and video files to create realistic alterations in one’s speech and action. NCSL attributes the necessity of legislation towards advances in technology which have made deepfakes easier to create. NCSL’s Database includes a recap of legislation relevant to deepfakes, which quantifies the number of statutes targeting online impersonation and manipulated, audiovisual content. Beyond broad delineations of targeted content types, the website highlights specific applications of deepfake law across several states, such as electioneering, sexual exploitation, identity theft, and unlawful dissemination. Lastly, NCSL’s database presents a comprehensive list of legislative proposals on deepfakes within each state legislature. The chart presents the jurisdiction (state), bill number, title, passage status, and summary for a given piece of legislation.
Tracker Legislation on Deepfakes in Elections
Public Citizen
Public Citizen discusses deepfakes in the context of United States Elections. The website defines deepfakes as audiovisual content which falsely portray political candidates through misrepresentation of their words or actions. The advancement of AI through deepfakes is presented as a bipartisan concern, as it has promoted manipulation of voters through misinformation. Public Citizen also provides consequences if deepfakes are left unregulated, highlighted by diminished confidence in the electoral process. Lastly, the website specifies legislative action on deepfakes within state legislatures. The legislation database includes a color-coded visual map dividing state legislation into laws implemented this year (2024), before 2024, and policies which are ‘pending’ through the legislative process. The website also includes a table listing deepfake legislation. For each law, the website lists its state, bill number (linked with its bill text), and passage status.
AI Deepfake Legislation Tracker
Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia’s Artificial Intelligence Deepfake Legislation Tracker is an online repository of deeepfake bills across the United States. The database is prefaced with a general definition for deepfakes, being audio, video, or imagery sources which depict an occurrence that hasn’t happened and have been created or altered by artificial intelligence. Ballotpedia also mention a definition formulated by the United States Government Accountability Office which focuses on simulated neural networks and training data as essential components of deepfakes. After this introduction, the website introduces its AI Deepfake Legislation Tracker, which includes legislation from all 50 states legislatures. First, the Bill Search feature allows bills to be retrieved through specific keywords, bill number, date of most recent action, state, current bill status, topic (type of deepfake use that the bill targets), sponsoring party/parties, partisan makeup of state government, and legislative session year. Furthermore, the Overview Data section presents aggregate results on all deepfake legislation included in the database, recording frequency of legislation by sponsors’ partisan affiliation and bill passage status, and analyzing passage status by states’ partisan control. Lastly, the website has constructed a visual representation of the concentration of introduced and enacted legislation in each state.