Arizona lawmaker says ChatGPT helped draft new deepfakes law

An Arizona state lawmaker said artificial intelligence (AI) system ChatGPT helped draft a new deepfake legislation that was signed into law this week.

Republican state Rep. Alex Kolodin said he used ChatGPT to write a subsection of House Bill 2394, which tackles AI-related impersonations of people by allowing Arizona residents to legally assert they are not featured in deepfake videos.

“I used it to write the part of the bill that had to do with defining what a deepfake was,” Kolodin told NBC News. “I was really struggling with the technical aspects of how to define what a deepfake was,” he said. “So I thought to myself, ‘Well, why not ask the subject matter expert, ChatGPT?’”

The bill was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Tuesday. The legislation allows Arizona residents to obtain a court order stating the person identified in the deepfake video is not them.

Kolodin said that the portions ChatGPT created were precise.

“In fact, the portion of the bill that ChatGPT wrote was probably one of the least amended portions,” he said.

Hobbs was not aware of the portion of the legislation being authored by ChatGPT.

“I kind of wanted it to be a surprise once the bill got signed,” Kolodin said, noting that it was part of the plan.

States around the country have introduced bills that deal with deepfakes, focusing on curbing the negative effects of AI ahead of November.

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