California laws to crack down on election deepfakes by AI [Video]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California now has some of the toughest laws in the United States to crack down on election deepfakes ahead of the 2024 election after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three landmark proposals this week at an artificial intelligence conference in San Francisco.

The state could be among the first to test out such legislation, which bans the use of AI to create false images and videos in political ads close to Election Day.

State lawmakers in more than a dozen states have advanced similar proposals after the emergence of AI began supercharging the threat of election disinformationworldwide, with the new California law being the most sweeping in scope. It targets not only materials that could affect how people vote but also any videos and images that could misrepresent …