Schumer Sees Chance to Pass AI Bills Before Election

With the window for legislative action quickly closing this calendar year and control of the Senate up for grabs, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is looking to get bills through Congress on regulating artificial intelligence, NBC News reported Monday.

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"Deepfakes are a serious, serious threat to this democracy," Schumer told NBC News in an interview Thursday. "If people can no longer believe that the person they're hearing speak is actually the person, this democracy has suffered – it will suffer – in ways that we have never seen before. And if people just get turned off to democracy, Lord knows what will happen."

Schumer hinted that deepfake legislation could be attached to the must-pass funding bill needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of September and that the fiscal year 2025 defense policy bill that needs to be passed by Dec. 31 likely will also include national security-related AI legislation.

The deepfake legislation would ban deceptive, AI-generated audio or visual depictions of federal candidates meant to influence an election or solicit campaign funds and require disclaimers for any political ads made using AI, according to NBC News.

The two bills cleared the Rules Committee, but the GOP blocked them on the floor last month after Democrats attempted to quickly pass them by unanimous consent — a process that requires agreement from all 100 senators.

The Republican Party's 2024 platform calls for the repeal of President Joe Biden's executive order on AI, which the GOP said "hinders AI innovation."

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Pressed whether he would dedicate extended floor time to the deepfakes bills when the Senate returns from its five-week summer recess on Sept. 9, Schumer said "we have three weeks when we come back [before senators are sent back to the campaign trail for the election]."

"Two weeks are taken up by funding the government," Schumer said. "If we can get these on a must-pass bill, or if the Republicans will let us speed up the time and not just use delay for two, three weeks – yes," the bills will be brought back to the floor.