Fear at 10:’ Senators’ concerns spike on impact of artificial intelligence ‘to change votes’ in 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Artificial intelligence’s ability to trick voters creates a significant threat for the 2024 elections, several senators told Fox News. 

“On a scale of one to 10, I would put my fear at 10 so far as the potential abuses for impersonation, false visual images, deepfakes, voice cloning,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, told Fox News. “Consumers deserve to know when the deepfakes and cloned voices occur.”

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who earlier this week released a set of “guiding principles” for future AI legislation, also rated his concern as a 10. AI already has the ability to create realistic deepfake videos, the Republican said, adding that he’s “very, very concerned by it.”

As AI applications proliferate across industries, the rapidly evolving technology has already proven to be a useful attack tool for some 2024 presidential campaigns. Lawmakers and analysts have also warned that AI could hurt political accountability and disrupt the upcoming elections. 

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“The biggest concern I have with AI is the way that it’s going to warp our political conversation,” Sen. JD Vance told Fox News

“There are certainly going to be some viral videos of either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, and it’s going to change votes, but it’s not going to be them,” the Ohio Republican continued. “It’s going to be a complete figment of an AI creator’s imagination.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn had similar worries.

“They can use AI and insert people into situations where they were not,” the Tennessee Republican said. “This should concern all of us.”

“It just shows that people are going to have to be very careful what they’re seeing online, what is circulating online, what they’re hearing, and then what they choose to believe,” Blackburn continued. 

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Whichever politician campaign can best employ AI will have an edge in the 2024 election, a political fundraiser wrote recently on Fox News. Internationally, China has already used AI to circulate propaganda, which, according to Sen. Pete Ricketts, indicates Beijing could influence the upcoming election.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, however, thinks AI’s rapid growth makes it difficult to precisely predict how the technology will impact the vote.

“If there are companies that seem to be cropping up with uses of AI that could disturb the integrity of the election, we need to be in a position to either access the courts to get temporary restraining orders or to use litigation to help us understand the extent of AI’s capabilities,” the Wyoming Republican told Fox News. 

“We’re going to have to monitor it carefully and be very familiar with its uses and its misuses,” Lummis said.

To watch the full interviews with senators, click here.