Democrats are realizing something needs to be done to reign in out-of-control AI content and companies. They, along with a few on the Republican side of the aisle, are moving a bill to protect people from having their voice and likeness replicated without their permission. AI can clone anyone these days.
AI is full of promise and innovation on one hand—and full of peril. Policymakers must mitigate the peril. This is called governing.
An AI bot accused a North Carolina man of stealing a car in Florida. He did not steal a car. But he spent three months in jail, lost his job and custody of his kids.
So I'm for reasonable governance of the AI industry, just like virtually every other industry has rules to prevent corruption, injustice, and things going haywire.
But, for now, I do have a double standard when it comes to AI use in political campaigns, which are not acts of governance. They are acts of winning.
Democrats are slower in their uptake of AI as a campaign tool compared to Republicans who have embraced it. President Trump, most famously, used AI to make a rendering of him as Jesus. Campaigns are using AI to make videos or images to mold impressions in people's minds, to shape their views of Democrats.
This is Republicans’ bread and butter; they are very good at it, AI is just another tool – a cheap, fast one– to do what they've always done to negatively brand opponents. It's not yet clear if the GOP's AI content creation in campaigns has any impact– meaning if it gives them any advantage. Up until this year, AI wasn't widely used in campaigns across the country.
Still, not knowing the impact is a reason for caution.
The National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC) has developed a playbook for how Democratic campaigns use AI. That playbook, Wired reported, “points out ways Democrats shouldn’t use AI and discourages candidates from using AI to deepfake their opponents, impersonate real people, or create images and videos that could ‘deceive voters by misrepresenting events, individuals, or reality. This undermines democratic discourse and voter trust,’ the training reads.”
Small “d” democratic discourse has already been undermined by social media, cable news, and Donald Trump. That ship sailed a long time ago.
The Republican National Committee would never issue such ethical guidance.
Rejecting AI’s full potential as a campaign tool, as the Democratic Party seems to be doing, is like refusing to use radio to campaign in the 1940s. Do the Dems want to win elections or win moral victories?
So they want the power to govern AI industry once elected. Or are they content with moralizing about it, win or lose?
As a matter of being competitive in elections, the full use of all tools should be available, especially during this year's election, arguably the most important of our lifetimes.