The emergence of artificial intelligence is shaking up the world.

Schools and workplaces are adapting to A.I..

Even political campaigns have been impacted by A.I..

Fake videos, audio and images can be used to misrepresent a candidate and their platform.

A new bipartisan Kentucky Senate bill takes aim at protecting candidates and the Commonwealth.

Our Clayton Dalton tells us how.

We have to get a handle on what I can do as a legislature.

A new Senate bill would prohibit campaign groups from using artificial intelligence or AI to make deepfakes that misrepresent a candidate, particularly an opponent.

Deepfakes are videos, audios, or images that are digitally altered to appear to be someone else.

They're often used to spread false information.

Senate Bill 130 one's Republicans sponsor says this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

It's not about the technology, it's how the technology is used.

And the bill is very specific and has to address those pesky false and has to be clear and concise and obviously that way with the intent to harm.

So you can't add technology, some wonderful things.

And it will make you know, if I'm trying to do a campaign that it's pouring out rain, you know, I could do it perhaps inside using the AI technology.

As long as I'm presenting the truth, that's not a problem.

It's when you use it for malicious intent.

But that bill this is the bill only wants to get a hold of that piece of it, because that really is not fair to the voter.

Then they're making a decision that may or may not be true, represent the true candidate's feelings and positions.

The bill specifically regulates election communication groups as defined by state law, by campaign teams, candidates and political parties, but not independent groups.

So my concern is that only candidates, committees or political parties are not able to do this and that the anybody else can do it.

I understand Senator William's concerns related to independent expenditure committees, but we can't regulate them here.

We we can only make law under Kentucky Revised Statutes under the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

But without federal intervention, there's only so much state lawmakers can do.

Really, this needs to be done at the federal level.

Congress needs to act.

But but Congress hasn't done so thus far.

So we see states acting in this space.

Third party expenditures are independent expenditures.

Some of that dark money that's already in politics, it's a group, a PAC, that shows up not with an official campaign and is running an ad or an independent expenditure.

Those are all governed by federal law.

So while I too would like to hold them accountable to some standards that I think would be nice and certainly above the fray.

Now, that is not under our purview.

Senator Mays Bledsoe says the bill is still important, particularly for voters.

And it's important for the voters to trust that what I'm saying and what I'm doing is me and that when they see those ads and there's no disclosure on it or something else, that they they say, hey, this is who she really is.

And I think it's an important relationship, especially when there's so much technology and misinformation out there.

I want from our standpoint, I think we should hold ourselves to that kind of standard to protect the voters as much, to protect ourselves.

Senate Bill 131 passed with ten yes vote and one no vote and now heads to the Senate floor.

For kentucky edition, I'm Clayton Dalton.

Senate Bill 131 is not the only piece of legislation dealing with AI.

Earlier this month, the state House unanimously passed a bill that punishes people who traffic AI generated depictions of child pornography.