New Senate invoice seeks to guard artists’ and journalists’ content material from AI use

A bipartisan group of senators has launched a brand new invoice that seeks to guard artists, songwriters and journalists from having their content material used to coach AI fashions or generate AI content material with out their consent. The invoice, known as the Content material Origin Safety and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act), additionally seeks to make it simpler to determine AI-generated content material and fight the rise of dangerous deepfakes. 

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senate AI Working Group member Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Commerce Committee member Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) authored the invoice. 

The invoice would require corporations that develop AI instruments to permit customers to connect content material provenance data to their content material inside two years. Content material provenance data refers to machine-readable data that paperwork the origin of digital content material, comparable to photographs and information articles. In response to the invoice, works with content material provenance data couldn’t be used to coach AI fashions or generate AI content material. 

The invoice is designed to offer content material house owners, comparable to journalists, newspapers, artists, songwriters and others the flexibility to guard their work, whereas additionally setting the phrases of use for his or her content material, together with compensation. It additionally provides them the suitable to sue platforms that use their content material with out their permission or have tampered with content material provenance data. 

The COPIED Act would require the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Know-how (NIST) to create pointers and requirements for content material provenance data, watermarking and artificial content material detection.

These requirements can be used to find out if content material has been generated or altered by AI, in addition to the place AI content material originated. 

“The bipartisan COPIED Act I launched with Senator Blackburn and Senator Heinrich, will present much-needed transparency round AI-generated content material,” mentioned Senator Cantwell in a press launch. “The COPIED Act may even put creators, together with native journalists, artists and musicians, again in charge of their content material with a provenance and watermark course of that I feel could be very a lot wanted.”

The invoice is backed by a number of artists’ teams, together with SAG-AFTRA, Nationwide Music Publishers’ Affiliation, The Seattle Occasions, Songwriters Guild of America and Artist Rights Alliance, amongst others. 

The introduction of the COPIED Act comes as there was an inflow of payments associated to AI as lawmakers look to control the expertise. 

Final month, Senator Ted Cruz launched a invoice that may maintain social media corporations like X and Instagram accountable for eradicating and policing deepfake porn. The Take It Down Act got here amid the rise of AI-generated pornographic photographs of celebrities like Taylor Swift have made the rounds on social media. 

In Could, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer launched a “roadmap” for addressing AI that may increase funding for AI innovation, sort out using deepfakes in elections, use AI to strengthen nationwide safety and extra.

As well as, Axios reported earlier this yr that state legislatures are introducing 50 AI-related payments per week. In response to the report, there have been 407 complete AI-related payments throughout greater than 40 states as of February, depicting a steep improve from the 67 associated payments launched a yr in the past.

Amid the emergence and recognition of AI instruments, President Joe Biden issued an government order final October to set requirements for AI security and safety. The requirements would require builders of AI techniques to share their security take a look at outcomes and different crucial data with the federal government earlier than deploying their techniques to the general public. It’s price noting that former President Donald Trump has vowed to repeal the manager order if re-elected.