Just a few weeks ago, a robocall in New Hampshire was made to mimic the voice of President Joe Biden. This week, OpenAI unveiled Sora, which turns verbal commands into life-like movie clips. With the technology proliferating so quickly, Kentucky lawmakers are working to put in place whatever protections they can to allow candidates for office avenues to pursue legal action should they fall victim to a deepfake.
Senate Bill 131 is narrow in scope, applying only to political parties, campaigns, and candidates.
"This at least gives us some tools to say, if you are going to do that, we're at least going to have the option to prosecute, bring a case to court, take damages," Sen. Amanda Mays-Bledsoe, the sponsor, said. "It doesn't stop people from, on the side, doing their own thing, so this is pretty tailored to mimic what campaign law we already have."
But that specific focus, which leaves out dark money groups and independent actors, fell short for Sen. Gex Williams — who sounded pessimistic about the chance that the bill would do much curb the fast-developing technology.
"It will absolutely, positively, not keep any of us at any time from being subject to deepfakes in our campaigns," he said, explaining his vote against. "That will happen, by somebody who's an independent expenditure."
But Mays-Bledsoe said it's important that Kentucky join other states that have taken the lead in passing at least some level of protection, even if many are waiting on the federal government to act.
