The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) has approved the Deepfake Report Act by a bipartisan voice vote.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, said the measure directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct an annual study of deepfakes and other types of similar content.
Deepfakes are described as hyper-realistic, digital manipulations of real content depicting events that did not actually occur. The bill requires DHS to assess the technology used to generate deepfakes, the uses of deepfakes by foreign and domestic entities, and available countermeasures to deepfakes in order to understand the role they can play in undermining national security, elections, and other American priorities.
“As AI becomes an intrinsic part of our economy and society, AI-based threats, such as deepfakes have become an increasing threat to our democracy,” Portman said.
“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 colleagues for approving this bipartisan legislation out of committee and I hope the Senate will consider and pass it soon.”
The legislation is now slated to go to the full Senate floor for further consideration.