Committee narrows S.23 draft, adds AG investigative authority for synthetic‑media complaints

The Senate Government Operations & Military Affairs committee reviewed draft 3.2 of S.23, the synthetic‑media bill, and discussed narrowing the proposal to target AI impersonation of political candidates while adding civil investigative authority for the attorney general.

In focused discussion, Rick Sagle, Legislative Counsel, Office of Legislative Council, described major edits in draft 3.2 designed to strengthen the bill’s chances of surviving constitutional challenge and make enforcement clearer. “You wanna stop a a impersonation, some kind of AI ad, phone call, video commercial, whatever it is. You wanna prevent that ad from deceiving a voter, in a mean spirited way,” Sagle said, summarizing the intent behind the revised definitions.

The committee’s draft removes broader language that would have applied to AI‑generated individuals generally and instead defines prohibited “synthetic media” as images, audio or video that appear to be an authentic recording of a political candidate’s appearance, speech, or conduct and that were created or intentionally manipulated with digital…