Voters face uneven AI deepfake protections
TL;DR
Ahead of the US midterms, rules for AI deepfakes in political campaigning differ sharply from state to state. Twenty-nine states have deepfake election laws in effect, while California's and Hawaii's have been permanently enjoined, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota and Texas ban political deepfakes only in the days before an election, while Maryland's ban runs year round.
Nauti's Take
The patchwork has one upside: states are effectively running a live experiment on which deepfake rules work, from plain disclosure to a year-round ban. The problem is the gap between them, because campaigns and platforms operate nationally while voters get very different protection depending on where they live.
Anyone producing political content is better off following the strictest state rather than the weakest.
Sources