Bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would target highly realistic artificial intelligence-generated impersonation scams designed to defraud Americans.
Technology has made it easy to create highly realistic audio and visual impersonations of individuals, and the technology has been used to commit fraud and identity-based scams.
The AI Fraud Accountability Act closes would create an offense under the Communications Act for falsely posing as a real or imaginary person through a highly realistic digital impersonation with the intent to defraud. It would apply to AI-generated or technologically manipulated audio or visual depictions that are indistinguishable from an authentic depiction to a reasonable person. Anyone found guilty of violating the offense would face imprisonment, fines and forfeiture of proceeds.
U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), House Ways and Means Committee vice chairman, and Darren Soto (D-FL) introduced the bill.
U.S. Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) Tim Sheehy (R-MO) introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
The legislation has the endorsement of Microsoft, National Consumers League, AARP, American Association of Senior Citizens, Center for AI Safety Action Fund, Bank Policy Institute, Business Software Alliance, Global Anti-Scam Alliance, North America Chapter and the National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship.