WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with oversight over federal elections, spoke at a press conference to highlight the need to find solutions and address the risks artificial intelligence (AI) could pose to our democracy and our national security.
“[There are] great risks for a country that is built on intellectual property and innovation, not protecting that would be a major disaster for our economy, [and there are] security risks, where we know people would try to access all kinds of secrets and other things using this technology. And…one risk that I'm going to focus on as the Chair of the Rules Committee, which is, the very risk to our democracy,” said Klobuchar. “So yes, we're gonna have some great innovations, and there's great possibilities here, but there is no reaping these benefits if we let the work of defending and strengthening our democracy fall by the wayside. That's why we can't drag our heels.”
In May, Klobuchar introduced the REAL Political Ads Act with U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Michael Bennet (D-CO). This legislation would require a disclaimer on political ads that use images or video generated by artificial intelligence. Companion legislation is led in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY).
Klobuchar also attended a classified briefing on artificial intelligence.
A transcript of Klobuchar’s remarks as delivered is available below.
All right, thank you. Thank you, everyone. Welcome back. I was looking at the senators up here and thinking that every single one of us have pulled off bills [that] people didn't think could be bipartisan. Senator Schumer with the semiconductor work with Senator Young, the work that Senator Stabenow has done on the farm bill over and over again, the work that Senator Heinrich has done on conservation, passing a major bill. This is possible and we have to do it across the aisle. And, I have been so impressed so far, sitting in on the briefing… on how people are trying to find that common ground.
We as a country can't afford to just duke this out and fight it out and not move forward. Not only for the innovation that my colleagues mentioned and the potential, but also for the risks, [there are] great risks for a country that is built on intellectual property and innovation, not protecting that would be a major disaster for our economy, [and there are] security risks, where we know people would try to access all kinds of secrets and other things using this technology. And…one risk that I'm going to focus on as the Chair of the Rules Committee, which is, the very risk to our democracy.
What have we seen so far? Well, in our hearing in the Judiciary Committee, when I specifically asked ChatGPT …what should we do about a polling place that has significant waiting lines in Bloomington, Minnesota [at]a specific polling place that was real, where should voters go? It immediately spit out 1234 Elm Street. Not a real address, not an address in Bloomington, Minnesota. Think about if that happened on Election Day. Then we have the story of Elizabeth Warren, where a video has been circulated. 200,000 people have seen it on Twitter that basically has her saying, and you cannot tell it's not her, that the other party shouldn't vote, that people who are members of the other party shouldn't vote. She didn't say that. Then you already have videos posting in the Republican primary that are false videos and now you have banter AI coming out, which can actually mock up the voices of the President and other elected officials, and make their constituents think that it's them. This does not have a place in a workable democracy.
And that is why I've been working across the aisle and as part of this esteemed group that Senator Heinrich and Senator Schumer are leading to work on this election issue. We had just seen a deadlock out of the FEC, when it came to making some decisions about how to regulate this. Yes, some of it has to have marks and labels on it, we already have a bill to do that. But, some of it is going to have to be outright banned or it's going to completely fool our constituents, on both sides of the aisle. [That kind of disinformation cannot have a place in our democracy].
So yes, we're gonna have some great innovations, and there's great possibilities here, but there is no reaping these benefits if we let the work of defending and strengthening our democracy fall by the wayside. That's why we can't drag our heels, and I appreciate Senator Schumer's leadership and his willingness to take this on on a bipartisan basis.
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