One thing we don’t need after the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection is another danger to democracy. But unlike the televised violence of that day, Blumenthal’s hearing showed how artificial intelligence can be used to subvert elections much more covertly than what MAGA rioters supporting President Donald Trump attempted to do three years ago.

It is a bipartisan threat that has generated bipartisan determination.

Two Democrats, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Chris Coons (Del.), and two Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Susan Collins (Maine), are pushing legislation that would ban misleading AI materials in ads politicians. . The bill, introduced in September, would also allow applicants for federal office to ask U.S. courts to order the removal of false information and award compensation to candidates.

But the legislation is not moving quickly and the urgency is clear, as the hearing highlighted.

“Will we have to suffer an electoral disaster before Congress realizes that we should really do something to give the public a sense of security, a sense of certainty that what they are seeing and hearing is real or real?” in fact, fabricated,’” asked Hawley, the top Republican on the Privacy, Technology and Law subcommittee, which held last week’s session.

Deepfakes featuring Trump and President Biden have already been used to mislead the public.

Hearing witness David Scanlan, secretary of state in New Hampshire, recalled “preparing to run a really good presidential primary” there the weekend before the January vote. Then things changed. He began hearing about “a robocall that used AI and in President Biden’s voice asked people not to vote in the election.” The call appeared to come from a phone number associated with a former Democratic Party official.

“It is important that you save your vote for the November elections,” the voice said. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”

The message was false, as was the association with the party official.

“This is what suppression of voter turnout looks like,” Blumenthal said after playing the audio during the hearing. The Associated Press said it “may be the first known attempt to use artificial intelligence to interfere with a US election.”

Last month, the BBC reported on fake photographs of Trump surrounded by African Americans, which were apparently circulated to give a false impression about his level of black support. Last year, deepfake images related to Trump’s court appearances showed him fighting with police and wearing a prison uniform.

What’s also disturbing is how little effort it takes to fool people with today’s technology, which makes it easy to make really good fakes. With free online programs, Blumenthal said, “deepfake voice cloning, images and videos are disturbingly easy for anyone to create.”

Biden’s was performed “by a street magician whose previous claim to fame was that he holds world records for bending spoons and escaping straitjackets,” Blumenthal added. “And if a street magician can cause so much trouble, imagine what Vladimir Putin or China can do. In fact, they are doing it.”

Five years ago, The Washington Post reported on a crafty Russian campaign that used social media to discourage black voters, according to documents released by the Senate Intelligence Committee. One sign showed the face of a black man next to the words “I will not vote.” This was primitive compared to current efforts.

While deepfakes involving Biden or Trump will receive publicity if they are discovered, Blumenthal said “local elections present an even greater risk” due to the disturbing decline of local journalism, a topic the senator explored at a hearing in January.

“When a local newspaper is closed or understaffed, there may be no one to check the facts, no one to publish those Pinocchio pictures, and no one to correct the record,” he said last week. “That’s a recipe for toxic and destructive politics.”

Additionally, a March report from the Government Accountability Office warned that “trust in real media can be undermined by false claims that real media is fake.” In other words, AI makes it easier for fake news to prevail over real news.

The problem is growing rapidly. “Between 2019 and 2020, the amount of deepfake online content increased by 900%,” according to the World Economic Forum.

But there are remedies for the toxins that AI can generate.

At the hearing, Zohaib Ahmed, CEO and co-founder of Resemble AI in Santa Clara, California, called for the “creation of a public database where all generated election content is recorded, allowing voters to easily access information.” about the nature of the origin of the content they find.” He and others also suggested using digital watermarking technology to verify the authenticity of content.

Whatever remedy is used, now is the time. Some actions are already underway. In February, following a request from Klobuchar and Collins, the bipartisan US Election Assistance Commission voted unanimously to allow federal funding to counter disinformation “amplified by artificial intelligence technologies.”

But “when the deepfake spreads widely, any report calling it fake will also be too late,” said Ben Colman, CEO and co-founder of Reality Defender, a tool that can detect deepfakes. “This is not scaremongering, AI scaremongering, doomism or conspiratorial hyperbole. It is simply the logical progression of the militarization of deepfakes.”

He applauded the legislation, the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, but urged more action by “imposing real sanctions on bad actors” who “transform reality and platforms that fail to stop its spread.”

This is personal for Klobuchar, who spoke out about a dishonest Russian photo that indicated she funds Nazis in Ukraine. “This photo had a red circle around me in the background,” she said, “and then they put defund police signs in the hands of people at the protest who were never there.”

Klobuchar called for quick action on her bill and a strong approval vote in committee so “we can get this heard right away…

“We really can’t wait.”