Common Cause Florida Warns that AI Bill Headed to Governor’s Desk won’t Protect Voters
- Jennifer Garcia 321-460-3257 jgarcia@commoncause.org
Media Contact
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, the Florida House and Senate passed House Bill (HB) 919, which fails to protect Floridians from manipulated information created byArtificial Intelligence (AI) in political advertising.
The bill’s next stop: The governor’s desk.
In response to the bill’s passage, Amy Keith, Executive Director of Common Cause Florida issued the following statement:
“Let’s be clear: This bill doesn’t protect Floridians from harmful AI-created disinformation in our elections. It is just a fig leaf.
“HB 919 only requires a weak and unclear disclaimer stating that the advertisement is ‘created with the use of’ AI, not that the content was ‘manipulated with’ AI. This fails to adequately inform Floridians of the harmful disinformation to which they are exposed.
“Floridians must be protected from being exposed to AI-generated disinformation. But this bill contains no provision for injunctive relief to take down manipulated and misleading political advertisements as fast as possible.
“While failing to protect Floridians from AI-generated disinformation, the bill also creates a new misdemeanor crime. Criminalization does not help misleading advertisements get taken down more quickly and it won’t stop political organizations from creating them.
“The risks that Artificial Intelligence presents to political and election-related disinformation should not be underestimated. AI technology enables the creation and spread of deceptive audio visual media and ‘deep fakes’ that make it look like a candidate for elected office, their party, or someone affiliated with them has said or done something they have not said or done.
“This bill fails to address this problem. The Legislature should focus on strong regulation that truly protects Floridians from AI-created disinformation. If he truly intends to protect our elections, the Governor should send this back to the legislature and ask for real protections for Floridians.”
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