Fake Biden robocall alarms Capitol Hill, but it's unclear if Congress will act
The fake Joe Biden robocall in the New Hampshire primary has Congress worried about deepfakes and artificial intelligence interfering in the 2024 elections.
WASHINGTON — The fake Joe Biden robocall urging Democrats not to vote in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary has sparked a renewed urgency on Capitol Hill about the threat of artificial intelligence-generated content designed to interfere in elections.
But some lawmakers expressed doubt Tuesday that Congress will be able to pass legislation to crack down on deepfakes ahead of the November elections.
“Seriously, I don’t know how we do” it before the general election, Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, the top Republican on the Rules Committee, which oversees elections matters, told NBC News. “First of all, we can’t even get appropriations bills up on the floor. How are we ever going to get anything else up on the floor with the leader?”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., herself a target of a deepfake video last year, blamed Republicans for the delay. “The Republicans are a hard no,” she said Tuesday. “Not every Republican, but it doesn’t take many to block it.”
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who has worked with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on a bill to require clear labels on AI content, called the prospect of more deepfakes in the coming election “absolutely alarming.”
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