House AI task force chair signals push for legislative measures as election nears

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Congress might consider new legislation on artificial intelligence and its effect on elections this year, according to the chair of the House of Representatives’ new AI task force.

"I do hope that we're going to be able to get started on actually creating and passing some legislation. I think that we're fortunate that there are some things that are very pressing on AI, but there's other things that relate to medium-term and long-term threats that don't need to be acted on immediately," Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital in an interview.

"But those short-term threats, I think we can mitigate those this year and I'm hopeful that the task force – we'll be able to get that done."

Asked to elaborate on short-term legislative goals, Obernolte said, "We have an election coming up – the use of AI to spread myths and disparate information about candidates, I think, is something we should all be able to agree is not only a bad thing for society, but something that could be a threat to people's trust in our democracy."

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Bills related to combating AI-generated disinformation have been introduced in this Congress amid a flurry of other legislative proposals, as lawmakers race to get ahead of the rapidly emerging