2024-05-07 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Election Laws
2024-05-07 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Election Laws
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Committee on election laws will come to order. Welcome all. My name is4 John Keenan. I'm the senate chair of6 this committee. I'm joined by my colleague and house chair representative, Dan Ryan. It's great to be here with you all this morning. I don't know if we have 2 people online, 2 reps. Yep.
SPEAKER2 - Yeah. Sure. Thank you, senator. Representative, John Moran has joined us virtually as is, rep Dan Carey.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Thank you. So and the as members join, we will make sure that they are are announced as best as we can. Today, the committee will hear testimony on senate 2730, which is an act relative to deceptive and fraudulent deep fakes in election communications, and we also hear testimony on 3 local bills. Those listening to this hearing, not on the committee, or not signed up to testify may view a livestream version on the legislature's website, mass majis majis majislature.gov. In a few days, this site will also have an archived video of today's hearing. For those watching on the livestream, any individual organization may submit written testimony and supplemental62 information on any of the bills on the docket to the committee and committee staff via email by Tuesday, May 7th, to emerson.ganu. That's emerson.ga gn0nmasenet.gov, and colleen.belotti@mahouse.gov.
Any legislators that wish to testify will be taken out82 of turn knowing that today is a busy day in84 both the house and the senate, and we will hear a testimony from those who preregistered followed by those90 who registered today. For those who will testify when I I recognize you speak, please state your name, if you're affiliated within an organization, your position on the bills of concern, and99 then begin your remarks. If you are testifying remotely, please unmute your audio and do the same. We ask that all remote participants remain unmuted until, remain muted until they are recognized. Individual testifiers will have up to 3 minutes to speak, except in the case of panels of more than 3 people. In those cases, a maximum117 time of 10 minutes will apply to the entire panel. We kindly request121 that you adhere to the time limit. When an individual or panel has concluded their testimony, please remember to mute your microphone. During testimony, members who, of the committee who wish to ask a question should indicate to the chair when an individual's testimony concludes, and for members joining us remotely using the chat or the raise the hand function, in the chat. When finished, the member who has asked a question should let me know that they have no further questions and then re mute the microphone. So moving on to the bills that we have today before us, first person signed up to testify is Chris Gilrein. I know he's here because I saw him in the hallway. Good morning. Good morning.
CHRIS GILREIN - TECHNET - SB 2730 - Thank you, Chair Keenan, Chair Ryan, members of the166 committee, I appreciate your time. Chris Gilrein, representing TechNet. We are an industry association representing, 90 plus companies throughout the innovation ecosystem. Pleasure to be with you today on this legislation regarding AI in elections. Artificial intelligence has the potential to help us to solve some of the most pressing issues of our time. We also strongly support clear disclosure, when AI is used in election communications. Our concerns201 or things that we'd like to bring to your attention as it relates to the legislation is to ensure, as we've seen in other states that have advanced this kind of legislation, that the responsibility for that disclosure is on the sponsor or the creator of that communication, and not on an intermediary like the platform, that it is posted on or the tool that might have been used to create it.
We also would like to recommend that there be explicit allowance for the sharing of potentially, media that might be considered deceptive for the purposes of fraud detection and identity verification. We have a member of TechNet that was able to immediately identify that, yes, it was in fact a deep fake, and, identify with a level of certainty, what tool was likely used to produce it. So, we want to make sure that the intermediaries, the platforms, the tools, are not held liable for the actions of the creator or sponsor of that communication, and we want to make certain allowances for using AI to combat misinformation. We will have all of this in writing for the committee, as well as suggested, language, and happy to provide that. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Alright.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Next, we have Elena Barrigan, if I pronounce that correctly.
Okay. And next is Craig Holman who is, joining us remotely. Craig Holman, good morning.
CRAIG HOLMAN - MASSACHUSETTS LOBBYIST - SB 2730 - Good morning. Glad to be here, Chair Keenan, Chair Ryan and members of the committee, thanks for letting me testify in support of S 2730. I am Craig Holman, I'm the lobbyist for public citizen representing our 21,500 members in Massachusetts. 2024 is shaping up to be the first very serious deep347 fake election we've ever seen. Artificial intelligence has been around for a while, but only this year, this election cycle, we've seen startling new advances, where artificial intelligence can depict a candidate saying or doing something that they never did. It's almost impossible to tell the difference between what's real and what is just entirely computer fabricated.
We've already seen several of these types of deep fake ads in the 2024 election cycle, both at the presidential level and at the local level. In the Chicago Mayoral race, Paul390 Dallas, one of the candidates for Mayor was depicted as condoning police violence by398 a deep fake ad, which he never said never did, and, you know, it never would represent. He ended up losing the race that shows how effective deep fakes can be. Yet we have almost no regulation of deep fakes and artificial intelligence in campaign communications,417 not even disclosure requirements. S 2730 would change all that for Massachusetts voters. It is transparency legislation, it is not legislation designed to regulate or ban deep fakes or artificial intelligence.
It is very respectful of first amendment rights. It's not a ban, it exempts news media, it exempts broadcasters and even social media platforms that make a reasonable effort to discern whether a communication is a deep fake or not. It provides the targeted candidate455 with injunctive relief to try to stop further dissemination of that type of deep461 fake ad. These types of transparency legislation are widely supported by the public. The data for progress shows about 80% of Americans support this type of transparency; Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike. The federal government is acting really slow. So, it's up to the states to step up to the plate and require disclosure485 of deep fakes as we enter487 the 2024 election. So far, 13 states have done so, and I am hoping that Massachusetts will join that league. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Any members present or joining us remotely have any questions? Seeing none, thank you. The next person who signed up to testify, doctor Hamid Ekpia, and doctor Ekbia will be joining us remotely.
And you're, muted, I believe, doctor.
Still muted.
SPEAKER5 - Can you hear me now?
SPEAKER1 - Yes, thank
SPEAKER5 - you. I apologize.
HAMID EKBIA - SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY'S MAXWELL SCHOOL OF CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS - SB 2730 - Good morning. Thanks for allowing me to provide testimony. I'm a professor and director of an AI Institute at Syracuse University in New York State. Today, however,553 I represent the academic Alliance for AI policy that currently involves around 40 major universities in the country. Our members are academics with expertise in computer science, engineering, and AI, as well as social sciences, law, and policy, and they are in strong support of S 2730 as an legislative proposal that seeks to regulate deep fake in election communications. Recent developments583 in generative AI and barriers to entry has given rise to an increasing volume of deep fakes and other forms of synthetic content with significant social and political implications from the saturation of false information about a particular topic or event to loss of common understanding and trust in our social institutions.
Moreover, effective polarization and negative partisanship, along with associated psychological mechanisms such as confirmation bias and motivated reasoning, push individuals to misinformation promoting environments. These are real and damaging threats to our democracy. The Academic Alliance for AI Policy strongly urges the joint committee on election laws to move S 2730 forward to reduce the potential harms of these social and psychological mechanisms by regulating deep637 fakes in election communication. This is hopefully the first step in protecting our citizens and our institutions from the attacks and agendas of maleficent players. I appreciate your attention. I thank you again for the opportunity to testify in support of S 2730. I would be happy to answer any questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. Thank you. Any questions? Those participating remotely? Appears to be no questions. Thank you. Appreciate She
has not. Is
She has not. Is there anybody who's joining us here today, either remotely or in person, who did not sign up or wishes to testify?
Seeing none, we'll move on, with the clear that hearing on that bill closed, we'll move on to 3 local bills that we have. Nobody has signed up to testify on those. But, we have received written testimony. Just a reminder, if anybody who wishes to submit this testimony, they may do so till the end of business today by sending that testimony to emisongano ganyo@masenit.gov, that's gagn0n, and colleen.balotti@mahouse dot gov. Mister chair, anything?
SPEAKER2 - No. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - K. I'd stand a motion to adjourn. Second. So made. All those in favor, say I. Opposed, no. The committee is adjourned. Thank you all for preparing.
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