US election officials discuss rules for AI-generated campaign ads

U.S. election officials will debate how to limit candidates’ use of artificial intelligence to design campaign ads after Republican election commissioners previously rejected the idea.

Republican Federal Election Commission Chairman Sean Cooksey and Democratic Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum said in a statement first seen by Bloomberg Law on Wednesday that they are working toward a “consensus solution” and that the commission will discuss the guardrails at its next meeting on Sept. 19.

The Commission was due to vote on whether to adopt AI regulations in a public meeting on Thursday.

The rise of AI has heightened bipartisan concerns about the possibility of deepfakes – manipulated images, audio and video recordings of people – being used to influence voters ahead of the 2024 election. AI tools are making it easier and cheaper to create deepfakes.

Advertising tracking company AdImpact expects political ad spending to reach as much as $10.7 billion this election cycle.