Gavin Newsom Wants to Make Fake or AI Election Reports Illegal

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would sign legislation to crack down on the use of campaign ads altered or generated by artificial intelligence, in the latest installment of an ongoing feud between the governor and entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Newsom posted a screenshot of a news headline in which Musk shared a video of himself miming a campaign ad for Vice President Kamala Harris, appearing to use an AI-generated voiceover of her.

“Fixing a vote in an ‘ad’ like this should be illegal,” Newsom wrote. “I will sign a bill in a few weeks to make it illegal.”

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Musk responded to Newsom’s post with a vulgarity, saying that “parody is legal in America.”

The social media skirmish came less than two weeks after Musk announced he would move the headquarters of several business ventures, including social media platform X and SpaceX, out of California.

Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon did not specify which bill the governor was referring to, saying only that “we are working with the Legislature to ensure that this issue is addressed in legislation that is already moving through the legislative process.”

There are currently several bills pending that aim to address the altered campaign materials that are appearing on social media.

A bill by Rep. Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, titled the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024” would require platforms to block misleading election-related content 120 days before an election and 60 days afterward.

Outside of this period, social media and other platforms would be required to flag content as manipulated and California residents would be able to report the content as fake or misleading.

State law already prohibits the distribution of “materially misleading audio or visual media of a candidate” within 60 days of an election.

Another bill, AB 2839 by Asm. Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, would extend that period to 120 days.

Pellerin’s office indicated she has not had any discussions with the governor’s office about the bill.

“The rapid advance of artificial intelligence has made it alarmingly easy for anyone with a computer to create convincing, yet fake, audio and video content,” Pellerin said in a statement. “The deceptive use of customized media poses a serious threat to our democracy by undermining voter confidence in elections.

Pellerin, who served as Santa Cruz County’s chief elections official for 27 years, said the fabricated video distributed by Musk “is a concrete example of how powerful this technology has become, and underscores the need to protect against the malicious use of artificially generated media to manipulate elections.”

Members of the Legislature have been on recess since early July. They return Monday for the final stretch of the legislative session, which ends Aug. 31.