A lawmaker from the Philippines wants the government to have “regulatory” control of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly when AI is used for “deepfake” videos.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte has filed a bill in Congress (House Bill 10567) which also proposes monetary fines for violators.
Penalties on distributing AI without public disclosure
The proposed law penalizes individuals who will use AI to produce materials and distribute them without making a public disclosure that these are deepfakes, or AI-altered visual and/or audio presentations.
The penalties proposed in House Bill 10567 range from P2 million to P5 million for producers or distributors of deepfake materials. This is also the same penalty for those who delete or tamper without such disclosures of AI-modified voices or images.
AI to be used for next year’s elections?
Villafuerte introduced the bill just weeks after backing the proposal of Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia for the electoral watchdog to prohibit the use of AI and deepfake technology in electoral campaigns, to preserve honesty and transparency in nationwide balloting in 2025 onward, the news daily Manila Standard further reported.
The lawmaker further cited a reported survey, which was posted on TikTok, supposedly reporting the results of an election survey. The survey was reportedly made by a major broadcasting firm but was found out to be fake.
Candidates face disqualification with AI, deepfake
Garcia earlier said disqualification and election offense cases to be filed against candidates who would use AI and deepfake technology in next year’s midterm polls.
“I will propose to the Commission en banc that we make it as an election offense case as well as disqualification charges,” Garcia said.
The poll body chief noted that allowing the new technology to promote one’s candidacy would be dangerous.
“The entire country could face chaos if we allow the presence of AI and deepfake because it can make it appear that a person is bad, or very good, or good-looking when it is not true,” he added.
Garcia, meanwhile, assured they were prepared to motu proprio file charges against these bets, noting that they “cannot just allow such activities without taking actions.”
He, however, said it would also be better if the public would participate and initially file charges against these candidates.
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