“As AI rapidly becomes an intrinsic part of our economy and society, AI-based threats, such as deepfakes, have become an increasing threat to our democracy," said Senator Portman. “Addressing the challenges posed by deepfakes will require policymakers to grapple with important questions related to civil liberties and privacy. This bill prepares our country to answer those questions and address concerns by ensuring we have a sound understanding of this issue. As concerns with deepfakes grow by the day, I applaud my Senate colleagues for passing this bipartisan legislation and hope the House will take it up soon."
With the aid of rapidly advancing technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, deepfakes are created by manipulating digital audio, visual, or text content to depict events that did not actually occur. These hyper-realistic manipulations make it difficult for the public to determine whether digital content is authentic, creating the potential for deepfakes to be weaponized by bad actors to spread false information and undermine public trust.
The Deepfake Reports Act directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to produce periodic reports on deepfakes to raise public awareness of possible fraudulent or misleading content, improve our understanding of the technology used to generate deepfakes, and identify how foreign governments or their proxies use the technology to harm national security. The bill also instructs DHS to consider available technological countermeasures and legislative responses to combat the rising threat of deepfakes.
The Deepfake Reports Act was also cosponsored by Brian Schatz (D-HI), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH)
Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
