Bill would criminalize publication of AI-generated campaign materials without disclosure

Iowa lawmakers unanimously advanced a bill Wednesday that would make it a felony to publish election-related content created with artificial intelligence without disclosing the use of AI.

The vote in the House Economic Growth and Technology Committee came after the bill manager said he expects significant changes that the entire panel can support before House Study Bill 599 could come to the floor.

“My hope is to have a bipartisan amendment that makes this bill something that this committee is proud of, our voters and candidates and election officials are proud of, and our technology industry can at least live with,” Rep. Ray Sorensen, R-Greenfield, said.

He said he’s already looking at “tweaking definitions” and “making sure there’s the proper liability,” and that he was open to making changes in the bill’s proposed penalties. Democrats on the panel praised his transparency and openness to working with the minority party on the proposal.

As written, the bill would ban the use of artificial technology in vote tabulating equipment, ballot marking devices or optical scan voting systems.

Published material generated through the use of AI “designed to expressly advocate the nomination, election or defeat of a candidate for public office or the passage or defeat of a ballot issue” would have to include a disclosure that the material was generated using AI.

It also would be a crime to publish without disclosure a “materially deceptive depiction” of a candidate, such as an image that changes the physical appearance of a candidate or depicts the candidate performing an act that did not occur.

The bill classifies violations as a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,245.

The legislation also creates a criminal offense of “making or publishing, or causing to be published, a false representation of a candidate or ballot issue that is intended to or actually affects voting at an election.”

A violation of that provision would be a serious misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,560.

Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, said he shares the concern about the use of artificial intelligence to manipulate elections. But, he said, criminal charges for nondisclosure is “far beyond what penalties we impose on any other campaign related violation of disclosure laws.”

He added that criminalizing lying in campaigns could run afoul of the First Amendment.

Sorensen acknowledged the concerns and said the felony charge was intended as an “attention getter.” “… I wanted some teeth in whatever we were going to do,” he said.

He said because the bill was not available for consideration before funnel week, he did not have as much time to review it as he would have liked. Most policy bills need to pass a committee in either the House or Senate by the end of this week to be eligible for further consideration.

“You have my word that we will work on something that we can all agree on as a committee and that we can all be proud of or it won’t move,” he said.

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