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FTC Proposes Ban on Impersonations of Individuals, Including With AI Deepfakes
The announcement came the same day that OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT—unveiled a new tool called Sora that can generate a minute-long video from a written prompt, upping the regulatory stakes.
Feb 16, 2024
The Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule on Thursday that would ban the impersonation of individuals, including with the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, technology.
The announcement came the same day that OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT—unveiled a new tool called Sora that can generate a minute-long video from a written prompt, raising new concerns about how the technology might be abused to create deepfakes videos of real people doing or saying things they did not in fact do or say.
"Sooner or later, we need to adapt to the fact that realism is no longer a marker of authenticity," Princeton University computer science professor Arvind Narayanan toldThe Washington Post in response to Sora's emergence.
"Today's proposed rules to ban the use of AI tools from impersonating individuals are an important change to existing regulations and will help to protect consumers from AI generated scams."
For its part, the FTC is mostly concerned about how technology can be used to fool consumers. In its announcement, the commission said that it had introduced the new rule for public comment because it had been getting a growing number of complaints about impersonation-based fraud, which has generated a "public outcry."
"Emerging technology—including AI-generated deepfakes—threatens to turbocharge this scourge, and the FTC is committed to using all of its tools to detect, deter, and halt impersonation fraud," the commission said.
The proposed rule comes the same day as the FTC finalized a rule giving it the ability to seek financial compensation from scammers who impersonate companies or the government and builds on that regulation.
"Fraudsters are using AI tools to impersonate individuals with eerie precision and at a much wider scale. With voice cloning and other AI-driven scams on the rise, protecting Americans from impersonator fraud is more critical than ever," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. "Our proposed expansions to the final impersonation rule would do just that, strengthening the FTC's toolkit to address AI-enabled scams impersonating individuals."
The FTC also said that it wanted public comment on whether the rule should prohibit AI or other companies from knowingly allowing their products to be used by individuals who are in turn using them to commit fraud through impersonation.
Public Citizen, which has advocated for greater regulation of AI technology, welcomed the FTC's proposal.
"The FTC under Chair Kahn continues to be bold and use all the tools in their toolkit to protect consumers from emerging threats," Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Today's proposed rules to ban the use of AI tools from impersonating individuals are an important change to existing regulations and will help to protect consumers from AI-generated scams."
OpenAI's preview of Sora raises the stakes in the debate surrounding AI regulation. So far, the technology is only being made available to certain professionals in film and the visual arts for feedback, as well as "red teamers—domain experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias"—to help assess risks, OpenAI said on social media.
"We'll be taking several important safety steps ahead of making Sora available in OpenAI's products," the company said.
One major concern surrounding deepfakes is that they could be used to manipulate voters in elections, including the upcoming 2024 presidential election in the U.S. The campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, raised alarms by using false images of former President Donald Trump embracing former White House Coronavirus Task Force chief Anthony Fauci in a video ad.
There are obvious errors in the Sora sample videos, as OpenAI acknowledged. Narayanan pointed out that a woman's right and left legs switch positions in a video of a Tokyo street, but also said that not every viewer might catch details like this and that the technology would likely be used to create harder-to-discredit deepfakes.
Another concern is the impact the technology could have on jobs and labor, especially in the arts. Director Michael Gracey, an expert on visual effects, told The Washington Post that the technology would likely enable a director to make an animated film on their own, instead of with a team of 100 to 200 people. The use of AI was a major sticking point in strikes by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America last year, as Oxford Internet Institute visiting policy fellow Mutale Nkonde pointed out. Nkonde told the Post she also worried about the technology being used to dramatize hateful or violent prompts.
"From a policy perspective, do we need to start thinking about ways we can protect humans that should be in the loop when it comes to these tools?" Nkonde asked.
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'Our Fight Continues,' Striking Actors Say After Studio Bosses Break Off Talks
"We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their stonewalling and greed," said SAG-AFTRA.
Oct 12, 2023
The screen actors union in the United States on Thursday accused film studios of using "bully tactics" to pressure its 160,000 members into ending a historic strike after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced it was walking away from the latest round of negotiations, saying the two sides are too far apart on key issues.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) called on members to return to picket lines Thursday morning to continue working to "help shape a fair industry for everyone" as leaders accused the AMPTP and four top studio CEOs directly involved in talks of trying to mislead the union about its latest offer.
Despite the studios' efforts, said SAG-AFTRA, "our fight continues."
The AMPTP said the talks were being suspended largely because of the actors' demand for a revenue sharing plan for successful streaming shows.
Union members should be entitled to revenue sharing amounting to about 2% of the money a show makes on streaming platforms, SAG-AFTRA has maintained since it went on strike July 14, allowing cast members "to share in the success of high-performing shows."
The AMPTP, joined by the "Gang of Four"—Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal chair Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and Disney CEO Bob Iger—claimed Wednesday that the plan would be an "untenable economic burden" for studios, costing over $2.4 billion over the course of a three-year SAG-AFTRA contract, or about $800 million per year.
The four companies' annual profits range from $12 billion to $33 billion. SAG-AFTRA said in its statement Thursday morning that the revenue sharing proposal would cost the companies 57 cents per streaming platform subscriber per year and accused the AMPTP of "intentionally" misrepresenting the cost of the proposal to the press.
The studios overstated the cost "by 60%," SAG-AFTRA said.
The union also said the AMPTP's latest offer claims to protect "consent" for performers before their digital replicas can be used for artificial intelligence (AI), while the studios are actually "continuing to demand 'consent' on the first day of employment for use of a performer's digital replica for an entire cinematic universe (or any franchise project)."
"The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA [Writers Guild of America]—putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators," said the union. "But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled."
In August, talks between the WGA and the AMPTP also stalled after the studios released an offer the union said was rife with "limitations and loopholes and omissions," including "disingenuous" claims that writers would be provided with increased residuals, AI protections, and working standards.
The WGA ultimately ended its own strike this week after securing a contract that includes higher pay than the AMPTP was originally willing to provide, better healthcare benefits, viewership-based streaming residuals, and AI regulations.
"We feel the pain these companies have inflicted on our members, our strike captains, IATSE, Teamsters and Basic Crafts union members, and everyone in this industry," said SAG-AFTRA. "We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their stonewalling and greed."
WGA-East urged its members to continue picketing alongside unionized performers until AMPTP provides a satisfactory contract offer that allows working actors to earn a living wage amid rising inflation.
"Let's help pack our union family's picket lines today to show the AMPTP we're not going anywhere until we ALL have fair contracts," said the writers union.
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The Labor Movement Is Reawakening; Policy Must Rise to Meet It
This is the moment for policymakers to demonstrate leadership and act in the best interest of the workers who keep our economy and our society functioning.
Sep 04, 2023
We are in an unprecedented moment in history for the modern American labor movement, with widespread labor strikes that stretch from coast to coast. From machinists to movie stars, worker-led actions are reverberating across sectors and sending a powerful message: Workers demand more.
Right now, more than 170,000 media professionals and writers are on strike demanding fair compensation from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and there are 146,000 workers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) ready to strike on September 15 if the Big Three American automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis) fail to improve working conditions and compensation. A strike by the UAW would increase the number of American workers on strike to the highest level since 1983. The scale of these strikes represents a significant shift in labor relations and a unique opportunity to shape an economic future that values and respects the dignity of work and the rights of workers.
For the first time in decades, the public is overwhelmingly on the side of workers. According to Gallup surveys, public support for labor unions is at its highest level in nearly 60 years. This surge in approval signals a significant societal shift and an awakening to the reality of working conditions in a 21st-century economy that often prioritizes profit over people.
Today’s labor movement, emboldened by a call for solidarity, represents a watershed moment for the advocacy and protection of workers’ rights.
Historically, labor unions have been instrumental in securing essential rights and protections for workers, from a five-day workweek to safer working conditions.
Today’s labor movement, emboldened by a call for solidarity, represents a watershed moment for the advocacy and protection of workers’ rights.
Yet, while public sentiment may be evolving, policy and legislation have been slower to catch up. A fair and thriving society needs laws protecting labor that keep pace with the changing workplace landscape. The recent wave of technological innovations, the Covid-19 pandemic, and rising global temperatures are all reshaping how we work, and policymakers must rise to the occasion. In an era marked by increasing employer power over workers and the growing prevalence of precarious work, policies that strengthen the right to strike and to collective bargaining are more critical than ever.
After years of corporate attacks, current labor policies do not respect and promote the collective power of workers. Rather, they enable harmful practices like union-busting, wage theft, and even corporate exploitation of children. Enacting laws that promote labor protections is not just a matter of economic justice—it is a question of human dignity. The right to fair compensation for work, to safe conditions, and to collective bargaining are cornerstones of a just society.
This is the moment for policymakers to demonstrate leadership and act in the best interest of the workers who keep our economy and our society functioning. It is a pivotal opportunity to strengthen labor laws, protect the right to strike and bargain collectively, and, ultimately, pave the way for a more equitable and fair society. The labor reforms available are wide-ranging: Policymakers can end at-will employment, support sectoral bargaining, center workers in workforce development, and raise the decision-making power of workers and unions.
The resurgence of the labor movement is not a temporary disruption to be weathered; it’s a clarion call for change to be embraced. Let’s ensure that this watershed moment in labor history leads to lasting change for the millions of workers who deserve nothing less.
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