Weeks after former President Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., a video circulated on social media that appeared to show Vice President Kamala Harris saying at a rally, “Donald Trump can’t even die with dignity.”
The clip provoked outrage, but it was a sham — Harris never said that. The line was read by an AI-generated voice that sounded uncannily like Harris’ and then spliced into a speech Harris actually gave.
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At the moment, no federal or California statute specifically blocks deepfakes in ads. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law last month that would have prohibited deceptive, digitally altered campaign materials within 120 days of an election, but a federal judge temporarily blocked it on 1st Amendment grounds.
Jeffrey Rosenthal, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome, said California law does prohibit “materially deceptive” campaign ads within 60 days of an election. The state’s enhanced barrier to deepfakes in ads will not kick in until next year, however, when a new law will require political ads to be labeled if they contain AI-generated content, he said.
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"Voters Are Seeing More Deepfakes — And Worrying More About Their Influence. How to Spot Them," by Jon Healey was published in the Los Angeles Times on October 29, 2024.
