Cantwell Seeks Legislation to Combat A.I Misinformation

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell participated in a Senate subcommittee hearing on transparency in artificial intelligence on September 13th. The subcommittee was comprised of fellow Senators and experts in the field. 

 At the subcommittee hearing, Cantwell stated that she wants to introduce legislation to combat deep fakes and other media that may be manipulated for disinformation. Cantwell referenced an event where a family in Pierce County had to pay $10,000 over a wire to an AI  (artificial intelligence.) scammer who spoofed their daughter's voice and told the parents she had been in a car crash and would be harmed if they didn't pay up.  

Cantwell also acknowledged the benefits of AI. In August, Senator Cantwell held a summit in Washington and talked about some of the benefits of the technology. "I  held an AI Summit in my state and saw some of those amazing technologies already being pushed by Allen Institute for AI and some of their early technologies, certainly helping in things like climate and farming and detecting illegal activities in helping us to move forward in important areas of research," she said.

The subcommittee hearing further discussed opportunities for AI in healthcare and energy and the risks and dangers of Artificial intelligence in disrupting labor and promoting bias through misinformation.

"We know that we have choices here. We know we want to continue to empower consumers and make sure that we're stopping the fraudsters. And we want to make sure that any misuse of AI that we are stopping at whatever we can do to make sure that we are protecting Americans privacy," Cantwell said.