Richard Blumenthal samples deep fake audio at the AI Hearing. ”We Also Know the Potential Harms and We’ve Seen Them Already Weaponized”

Senator Richard Blumenthal opened the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Oversight of AI  on Tuesday with a deep fake recording of himself.

“Too often we have seen what happens when technology outpaces regulation, the unbridled exploitation of personal data, the proliferation of disinformation, and the deepening of societal inequalities. We have seen how algorithmic biases can perpetuate discrimination and prejudice, and how the lack of transparency can undermine public trust. This is not the future we want.”

The text, written by ChatGPT and recorded by a voice cloning AI, proved a point for Senator Blumenthal. AI has the potential to disrupt media trust and how information spreads, it raises risks of impersonation and fraud and creates tools of manipulation. ”What reverberated in my mind was what if I had asked it? And what if it had provided an endorsement of Ukraine, surrendering or Vladimir Putin’s leadership? That would’ve been really frightening”, Blumenthal continues.

Takeaways From Blumenthal’s Remarks. An Issue of Trust

Trust and manipulation was one of the most quoted issues at the hearing. AI expert and psychologist Gary Marcus said lawyers are already contesting the legitimacy of evidence on account of deep faking.This is a new era of confused juries, distracted electorate and elaborate scams.

“Fundamentally, these new systems are going to be destabilizing. They can and will create persuasive lies at a scale humanity has never seen before. Outsiders will use them to affect our elections, insiders to manipulate our markets and our political systems. Democracy itself is threatened,” Marcus warns the senate in his opening statement.

The meeting listened to testimonies from three experts in AI tech and ethics: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Gary Marcus, ethicist and professor at NYU and Christina Montgomery, Chief Privacy Officer at IBM. All three agreed that there is a degree of unacceptable risk with AI. If not kept under control, deep fakes can dynamite democracy and national security. Their potential has been compared to the atomic bomb in terms of destruction.