Requires any political communication, whether made by phone call, email or other message-based communication, that utilizes an artificial intelligence system to engage in human-like conversation with another shall, by reasonable means, apprise the person of the fact that they are communicating with an artificial intelligence system.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3327
SPONSOR: Vanel TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to political communication
utilizing artificial intelligence
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Relates to political communications utilizing artificial intelligence.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Requires that any political communication that is used to
engage with another in humanlike conversation shall, by reasonable
means, apprise the person with whom they are engaging in conversation
with the fact that they are communicating with an artificial intelli-
gence system.
JUSTIFICATION:
There are four feats that have passed by humanity that warrant concerns
for elections.
To start with, anyone can generate an AI vocal clone of themselves for a
relatively modest price using only a few seconds of audio. Second, AI
systems have successfully completed the Turing Test, a test that deter-
mines whether an individual can differentiate between a machine and
another human. Third, AI is capable of recognizing what a human is
saying even in difficult-to-hear audio, like over the phone. Lastly, it
is possible to integrate all of these together in real time.
Collectively, these four feats enable any individual to replicate their
own voice and have a machine participate in real-time dialogue with
another that resembles that of a human - themselves.
For elections, this is concerning because without proper disclosures,
any candidate has the ability to trick a prospective voter into believ-
ing that they are engaging in a conversation with a candidate. And even
though this technology is advanced, it is still in its infancy. It's
easy to imagine where we will be in just a few years with this technolo-
gy, where hyper-realistic back-and-forth conversations can occur between
candidates and voters.
While using this technology is not bad in itself, deceiving people is.
This bill simply puts in commonsense guardrails to ensure that voters
are not deceived into believing that they are speaking with a candidate
or a representative of theirs.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
02/07/24referred to election law
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:':
TBD
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3327
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 27, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. VANEL -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to political communication
utilizing artificial intelligence
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 14-106 of the election law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 5-a to read as follows:
3 5-a. Any political communication, whether made by phone call, email or
4 other message-based communication, that utilizes an artificial intelli-
5 gence system to engage in human-like conversation with another shall, by
6 reasonable means, apprise the person of the fact that they are communi-
7 cating with an artificial intelligence system.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06926-01-5
