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As artificial intelligence (AI) finds applications in political deepfakes, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is looking at opportunities to pass deepfake election and AI bills as soon as possible.
Recently, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk got entangled in a controversy after sharing a parody deep fake video of presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris on X. Musk is a known supporter of Donald Trump, who is also running for president in the 2024 national elections.
This incident has alarmed Schumer and others about the possibility that AI-generated deepfakes would influence trust in candidates, elections, and American democracy.
“Look, deep fakes are a serious, serious threat to this democracy. If people can no longer believe that the person they’re hearing speak is actually the person, this democracy has suffered—it will suffer—in ways that we have never seen before. And if people just get turned off to democracy, Lord knows what will happen,” he told NBC News in an interview.
With this in mind, the senator has focused his career on regulating AI.
Schumer is currently focusing on the must-pass funding bill, which must be completed by the end of September, as a vehicle to advance two deep fake election bills before Election Day arrives. He is also confident that the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will include national security-related AI legislation.
Deepfake bills to ride on must-pass funding bill
Two deepfake bills are now in the works at the US Senate and are aimed at banning deceptive, AI-generated audio or visual depictions of federal candidates. These also require content creators to include disclaimers in any political advertisements created using AI.
Following a success in the Rules Committee, the pair of bills awaits September 9 when the Senate returns from its five-week summer recess. However, only three weeks remain before senators begin their election campaign. Within this narrow period, only the stopgap funding bill will be discussed to avoid a government shutdown amid elections.
Still, Schumer believes that the deepfake bills will be brought back to Senate the floor if they could be attached to the must-pass funding bill.
But that is not guaranteed yet.
Just last week, Republicans voted against the bills after Democrats unanimously cleared them in a swift decision. This is not the first time, though, as a bill prohibiting deepfake pornographic images was also blocked by Republicans over free speech concerns.
“Donald Trump, and so many of the Republicans who follow him, they don’t really like democracy, they don’t treasure democracy. So they’re putting pressure on Republicans to go against these bills,” Schumer explained.
Despite this, the Senate majority leader stressed that the Democrats would continue to push these “American bills” because democracy is at risk if these deepfakes are allowed to prevail.
AI bill running on national security threat
On the other hand, the inclusion of AI regulation bills in the 2025 defense policy bill or NDAA has been supported by both parties as the risks posed by the technology to national security become more apparent.
Democrats and Republicans have already submitted amendment proposals to the NDAA.
Schumer’s proposed change would authorize physical and cybersecurity requirements on data centers that store advanced frontier AI models. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s amendment would require some senior military officers to undergo training on cyber, artificial intelligence, and data analysis tools and capabilities.
Another proposal from Democratic Senator Brian Schatz would mandate the creation of AI implementation working groups throughout the Pentagon under the leadership of the Defense Secretary.
