Idaho bill aims to fight use of deepfakes, lets political candidates seek damages

A new bill in the Idaho Legislature is designed to combat the use of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes in electioneering to manipulate a candidate’s recorded speech, photos or videos.

The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee introduced House Bill 407, which would allow a candidate to seek injunctive relief prohibiting the publication of the materials and seek damages if that candidate’s image, appearance or speech has been manipulated using artificial intelligence or digital technology to create “a fundamentally different understanding” that did not occur in reality.

The new AI electioneering legislation was brought forward with bipartisan support. House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, and House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, are sponsors of the bill.

Rubel said AI-generated images and videos have become sophisticated enough to mislead the public during election campaigns.

“The technology is really pretty stunning in what it can do to replicate a person’s speech, appearance and voice to the point where somebody could create a video of you speaking that could deceive your own mother,” Rubel told the committee Wednesday.

This is at least the second AI-related bill introduced in the Idaho Legislature since the session began Jan. 8. On Jan. 11, the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee introduced House Bill 391, which would make it a crime to use sexually explicit AI-generated images or videos for harassment or sexual extortion of a victim depicted.

Introducing the new AI electioneering bill clears the way for it to return to the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee for a full public hearing.