Arizona lawmaker uses ChatGPT to write law that defines deepfakes

An Arizona state representative proposed a new legislation that regulates deepfakes used in elections. However, he wrote the proposed law with the help of the famous artificial chatbot, ChatGPT and attempted to define what deepfake is.

Republican Party’s Alexander Kolodin proposed a Bill which was passed unanimously by both chambers and was signed by the state’s Democratic governor this week.

The law will allow candidates in Arizona or residents to ask a judge to declare whether a supposed deep fake is real or not. The law aims to provide candidates with a way to debunk AI-generated misinformation.

While talking about the law, Kolodin mentioned that he used ChatGPT to help define what “digital impersonation” is for the bill. He said that it was a fun way to demonstrate the technology. He supported his case by providing a screenshot of ChatGPT’s response to the question of what a deepfake is. He pointed out that the chatbot’s definition was similar to the one included in the bill.

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Kolodin used ChatGPT in the past

While presenting his case in the Arizona chamber, Kolodin insisted that he is not a computer scientist. “So when I was trying to write the technical portion of it, in terms of what sort of technological processing makes something a deepfake, I was kind of struggling with the terminology,” he said.

“So I thought to myself, well, let me just ask the subject matter expert. And so I asked ChatGPT to write a definition of what was a deepfake,” the Arizona lawmaker added.

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Kolodin also revealed that he has used ChatGPT in other lawmaking a couple of times and mentioned that the tool helped him write the first draft of the amendments and save time.

“​​Why work harder when you can work smarter,” Kolodin replied on Twitter when an Arizona reporter tweeted about his use of ChatGPT in the bill.

Why work harder when you can work smarter 🤔

— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) May 21, 2024

AI regulations during elections

It is pertinent to note that the federal government has not yet regulated the use of AI in elections, though groups have been pressuring the Federal Election Commission to do so. One of the major concerns is the fact that technology has moved much faster than the law and has the potential to disrupt elections.

Meanwhile, reports are emerging that the Federal Communications Commission might consider whether to require disclaimers on AI-generated content on political ads running on radio and TV, the Associated Press reported.

However, in the absence of such regulations on the federal level, many states have advanced bills to regulate deepfakes.

With inputs from agencies.