California Governor Gavin Newsom happily signed a group of bills on Monday that will significantly impact the AI game.
Particularly, in the lead-up to the 2024 election, Newsom signed AB2839 and AB2655:
One of the new laws, AB 2839, aims to curb manipulated content that could harm a candidate's reputation or or public confidence in an election's outcome, with the exception of parody and satire. Under the legislation, a candidate, election committee or elections official could seek a court order to get deep fakes pulled down. They could also sue the person who distributed or republished the deceptive material for damages.
The other bills signed include AB 2655, which requires technology platforms to have procedures for identifying, removing and labeling fake content. This also exempts parody, satire and news outlets that meet certain requirements. AB 2355 requires a committee that creates a political ad to disclose if it was generated or substantially altered using AI.
While the bills claim there are exemptions for satire and parody (and news outlets like ours that employ humor), the line between comedy and "deceptive material" is going to be defined by the same people who define what "hate crimes" are.
Understand that these bills are being touted as privacy protections for celebrities and public figures (Taylor Swift is mentioned by name in the LA Times article), but they are a Trojan horse to suppress free speech.
Here's why they say it's so important that we get rid of these AI-generated memes.
Deep fakes of this year's presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump, have spread widely online, increasing fears of misinformation and disinformation. Some social media companies have taken down such content when it violates their standards, but it can be difficult for content moderators to keep up with the rapid sharing and uploading.
Oh, so you mean I can't share things like this?
I guarantee these bills are meant to protect the Left from the much-superior memers of the Right. And if you are in doubt, consider what I said above: THEY get to define what "deceptive material" and "election interference" looks like.
Such was the case when a Trump supporter was charged by Biden's DOJ with election interference for a Hillary Clinton meme and found guilty:
Probably the only AI-generated images they'll ban of Trump are the ones where he's holding kittens and puppies who are now his supporters because Haitians keep cooking up their kind over in Ohio.
We can see right through this, California. You're the first censorship state of many in this nation, and we will not comply.
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