In an effort to safeguard election integrity, Georgia lawmakers have taken a legislative sledgehammer to the burgeoning threat of deepfakes. The state's House has passed a bill making it a felony to produce and distribute AI-generated content designed to skew elections. According to an article by FOX 5 Atlanta, House Bill 986 zoomed through the House with broad support, though it was not without its critics who see potential First Amendment entanglements.
State Rep. Brad Thomas, the Republican sponsor of the bill, warned of the pressing dangers posed by deepfakes. "It's already happened with the New Hampshire Primary with robocalls telling people not to vote. It's already happening right now," Thomas stated to reporters. The bill specifically zeroes in on campaigns, PACs, and similar entities, targeting what appears to be the most likely sources of high-quality deceitful content. State Rep. Todd Jones drove home the point: "In order to even be convicted of this, you must have specific knowledge that you are doing something wrong, specific knowledge you uploaded it, or you intended to affect an election or referendum," he told FOX 5 Atlanta.
On the flip side, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that some fear the free speech implications of HB 986. The bill, nevertheless, attempts to thread the needle by exempting satire and legitimate journalism from its provisions, with campaign ads required to disclose AI-generated content. If this bill becomes law, violators could stare down a sentence of two to five years plus fines up to $50,000, and judges could slam the door on distributing deceptive media. Rep. Thomas sees Georgia's bill as a potential model for the nation.
Georgia's bill joins a national chorus of states that have introduced or passed legislation to combat deepfakes, as the technology becomes more accessible and its products more convincing. "The technology is so good these days. It's out there. My eyes have been opened based on this bill," said Robert Smith, general counsel for the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, in a statement obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Major tech companies like Google and Meta have also chimed in, signing a voluntary agreement last week to temper the AI tools' election disruption capabilities, though without the clout of binding requirements.
As the bill now heads to the Georgia Senate, the state moves one step closer to staving off digital doppelgangers from corrupting its elections. The ongoing battle to defend the circulation of truth presses on, with Georgia taking up the gauntlet to ensure that come 2024, voters will cast their ballots based on real voices, not artificial echoes.
