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Chairman outlines bill to require disclosures on AI-generated political ads
Summary
A committee chairman presented a bill that would require visible or spoken disclaimers on AI-generated political advertisements, define when the rule applies, and exempt satire, private social-media posts and news coverage; penalties and enforcement mechanisms were described.
The chairman introduced a bill that would require disclosures when artificial intelligence is used in political advertisements, and he defined when the measure would apply. "What this bill does is it provides protections when artificial intelligence is used in the qualified political advertisement," the chairman said at the start of the presentation.
The measure defines a "qualified political advertisement" as one that (1) uses AI-generated image, audio or video and (2) is made on behalf of a candidate, committee or person in connection with an election or ballot issue. The chairman said different media would carry different disclosure rules: "If it's text or graphic ads, it must include a visible disclaimer. If it's an audio ad, it must include a spoken disclaimer. And if it's a video ad, it must include both a visual and spoken disclaimer."
The bill also lists exceptions and limits. The chairman said the proposal "does not ban AI use in campaigns," does not regulate text-only content such as captions or written posts, does not apply to private social media activity, and does not apply to satire, parody, news coverage or documentaries. He added that the bill "does not create criminal penalties."
On liability and penalties, the chairman said liability would attach to the person or committee that created the AI-generated ad, not to broadcasters or platforms that were given the ad to run. Penalties described in the committee record included a first individual violation of up to $250, subsequent individual violations up to $1,000, and committee-level penalties starting at $1,000 per violation. Enforcement, he said, could be pursued by the attorney general or by a candidate "who's injured or likely to be injured" by a violation, with venue noted as Hinds County in the 7th Circuit where the alleged violation took place.
The committee was left to consider next steps after the presentation; members flagged coordination with the attorney general and the need to harmonize related election language before returning the measure to the elections committee.
