Stevens introduces bipartisan bill to combat ‘deepfakes’

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Rochester) is sponsoring a new bill aimed at stopping “deepfakes,” videos and audio manipulated with artificial intelligence technology to show people doing and saying things they didn’t. This has been an increasing concern, especially with the 2020 election season in full swing.

U.S. Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), Jim Baird (R-Ind.) and Katie Hill (D-Calif.) also are sponsors of H.R. 4355, which directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to support research to accelerate the development of technologies that could help improve the detection of deepfakes.

The sponsors said the legislation is critical to deepfakes from becoming a “major national security threat.”

“In recent years, the development of deepfake technology has made it easier to create convincing fake videos, which have already been used for malicious purposes,” said Stevens. “The ‘Identifying Outputs of Generative Adversarial Networks Act’ will help us better understand deepfakes and learn how to prevent the proliferation of fake news, hoaxes, and other harmful applications of video manipulation technology.”