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Minutes for SB375 - Committee on Federal and State Affairs
Short Title
Prohibiting the use of generative artificial intelligence to create false representations of candidates in election campaign media or of state officials.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 8, 2024
Jason Long, Office of Revisor of Statutes, gave an overview of the bill. He stated SB375 would prohibit the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to alter the appearance, action, or speech of a candidate or elected state official. Such actions would be added to the list of actions considered to be corrupt political advertising. The criminal penalty would be a class C misdemeanor. (Attachment 1)
After a period of questions and answers, the Vice Chairman called for proponent testimony.
Proponent Oral Testimony
Clay Barker, Deputy Secretary of State, spoke as a proponent of the bill. He stated the legislature must limit the use of artificial intelligence in elections, and Kansas voters deserve to know when political content they see is real, or when it has been manipulated by AI. In January of 2024, misleading AI has been used against both President Biden and former President Trump. The Secretary of State supports the bill because it is structured to apply only to campaigns and elections, pertains only to content a reasonable person could not tell if it had been modified or not, and the message has to be fundamentally different from what the candidate would typically say. (Attachment 2)
Rick Piepho, Kansas County Clerks & Election Officials Association, spoke as a proponent of the bill. He stated his organization would like appointed election officers, such as county clerks and commissioners, to be added to the bill language, to protect against the manipulation of communications from their members. (Attachment 3)
Written Only Proponent Testimony
Sean Hatfield, Kansas District Judges Association (Attachment 4)
Neutral Written Only Testimony
Allison Mazzei, Kansas Association of Broadcasters (Attachment 5)
Emily Bradbury, Kansas Press Association (Attachment 6)
Ruthie Barko, TechNet (Attachment 7)
There was no opponent testimony.
Mark Skoglund, Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, although not presenting testimony, was present for questions and answers along with the scheduled conferees.
After the period of questions and answers, the Vice Chairman closed the hearing on SB375.
