Here's What Policymakers Can Do About Deepfakes, Right Now

Unfortunately, bad actors can use deepfakes to impersonate public officials and candidates to deceive voters in a variety of ways that would undermine this key principle. Other policy approaches could enable candidates targeted by materially deceptive AI-generated content used in political advertisements or fundraising campaigns to seek damages or remove deceptive content, while preserving protections for free speech. This abuse primarily targets women, victims have included minors, and could potentially enable further abuse and extortion by bad actors. But few existing laws adequately hold bad actors accountable for sharing or threatening to share this material, or necessarily cover AI-generated content. Policymakers should create strong criminal and civil liability for people that distribute nonconsensual intimate audiovisual content, including AI-generated content, as well as for people that threaten to do so.