Lawmakers are worried that new technology could hurt the 2024 election.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Several senators told Fox News that the ability of AI to trick voters poses a significant problem for the 2024 elections.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, told Fox News, “On a scale of one to ten, I would put my fear for impersonation, fake visual images, deepfakes, and voice cloning at a 10.” “Consumers should be told when deepfakes and cloned voices happen.”
This week, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley released a set of “guiding principles” for future AI laws. He also gave his worry a 10. The Republican said that AI can already make deep fake movies that look real and that it worries him “very, very much.”
AI is being used in more and more fields, and the technology is changing so quickly that it is already being used as an attack tool in some 2024 presidential elections. Lawmakers and experts have also said that AI could make it harder for politicians to be held accountable and mess up the next elections. “My biggest worry about AI is how it will change the way we talk about politics,” Sen. JD Vance told Fox News.
The Ohio Republican added, “There will definitely be some viral videos of either Donald Trump or Joe Biden that will change votes, but it won’t be them.” “It will be something made up by the person who made the AI.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn felt the same way.
The Tennessee Republican said, “They can use AI to put people in situations where they weren’t.” “We should all care about this.”
“It just shows that people will have to be very careful about what they see online, what is going around online, what they hear, and what they decide to believe,” said Blackburn.
A political fundraiser recently wrote on Fox News that the 2024 election would go to the candidate whose campaign can best use AI. China has already used AI to spread worldwide, which Sen. Pete Ricketts says shows that Beijing could affect the upcoming election.
On the other hand, Sen. Cynthia Lummis thinks that AI’s fast growth makes it hard to know exactly how it will affect the vote.
The Wyoming Republican told Fox News, “If companies seem to be popping up that use AI in ways that could affect the integrity of the election, we need to be able to either use the courts to get temporary restraining orders or use litigation to help us understand how far AI can go.”
Lummis said, “We’ll have to keep a close eye on it and know how to use it and how not to use it.”
