Senate Bill to outlaw AI deepfakes within 60 days of an election gets House hearing

Montana is looking to join 20 other states with a bill to ensure candidate “deepfakes” don’t become part of elections in the state.

A bill regulating usage of artificial intelligence in elections received a hearing last week and is awaiting executive action.

Senate Bill 25, brought by Sen. Janet Ellis, D-Helena, adds definitions and disallows so-called “deepfakes” within 60 days of an election. There is an exception — if the media is marked as being artificially generated or edited, they would be allowed and the bill has a long list of stipulations depending on the media type.

“This isn’t something attacking free speech,” Ellis said in a March 25 hearing before the House State Administration Committee.

Candidates have two options for dealing with deep fakes — they’d be able to file an injunction and have the option of filing a complaint with the commissioner of political practices.

The injunctive relief for a candidate targeted by a deep fake is supposed to be immediate, with the bill going so far as to say it “must be expedited by the district court and given preference over all other matters currently before the district court upon showing of present or ongoing harm.”

A second offense would be a misdemeanor. The bill did generate some discussion over the specifics of the exceptions, with Ronda Wiggers of the Montana Broadcasters Association providing some soft opposition.

Her opposition boiled down to who would be accountable for running the material. The bill contains language that says “the person, corporation, committee, political party, or other entity knew or should have known (the material) is a deepfake of a candidate or political party on the ballot.”

Wiggers said she’d like to see that language removed.

“So we would like you to strike the words ‘or should have known,’ that’s all,” Wiggers said. “So that we don’t have to try to figure out how we should have known that something was a deep fake.”

There are 20 states with laws on the books regarding artificial intelligence in elections, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. It’s a rapidly developing field and there’s worry it will continue to be an issue in upcoming elections.

SB 25 seeks to address the problem before it becomes one in Montana, like much of the tech and artificial intelligence legislation this session.

“I don’t know how much of that is going on in Montana, but it’s a real problem in this country,” said Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, at a press availability Tuesday. “And I think we’re trying to get out in front of all those kinds of bad behaviors when it comes to AI.”

Elections have changed, Flowers said. Campaigns are getting “icky” House Minority Leader Katie Sullivan added.

“We’ve opened the flood gates, and campaign spending and the social media component is outrageous and is used more and more and more by campaigns,” Sullivan, D-Missoula, said. 

She said the technology to make “deepfakes” of candidates is accessible to a lot of people.

“I would anticipate people would absolutely use that if they could. We should absolutely outlaw it,” Sullivan said.