Michael Waltz (R-FL) and Don Beyer (D-VA) produced a deepfake video for the U.S. House Science subcommittee to demonstrate the threat such disinformation presents. Michael Waltz (R-FL) and Don Beyer (D-VA) produced an artificial intelligence-doctored political video, or deepfake, for the U.S. House Science subcommittee to demonstrate the threat such disinformation presents. Lawmakers are worried of malefactors using deepfakes to disrupt and divide U.S. voters in the run-up to the 2020 election, and Waltz and Beyer are urging investment in deepfake-detection solutions, especially as production tools become increasingly affordable and accessible. State University of New York at Albany's Siwei Lyu, who helped craft the deepfake demo, said his software could generate deepfakes of a minute-long YouTube video in eight hours. Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley's Hany Farid cited the sluggish progress of technology platforms like Facebook and Google to address deepfakes.

Artificial intelligence technologies are capable of disrupting every aspect of society and the United States must do more to maintain leadership in the area, the leaders of a House panel said in a report released Tuesday. Artificial intelligence "has the potential to disrupt every sector of society in both anticipated and unanticipated ways," according to a report authored by Reps. "In light of that potential for disruption, it's critical that the federal government address the different challenges posed by AI, including its current and future applications." The federal government must "increase spending on research and development to maintain American leadership with respect to AI," including spending on education and training programs so American workers can gain skills in such technologies, Hurd and Kelly wrote. The report is the result of a series of hearings that Hurd and Kelly held in the past few months on artificial intelligence technologies.