Filing Supporting Minnesota Deepfake Law May Have Been Written by AI

Federal Lawsuit Raises Questions About AI-Generated Content

A federal lawsuit over Minnesota’s “Use of Deep Fake Technology to Influence An Election” law is now directly dealing with the influence of AI. In a recent filing, attorneys challenging the law say an affidavit submitted to support it shows signs of containing AI-generated text.

AI-Generated Text in Affidavit?

Attorney General Keith Ellison asked Stanford Social Media Lab founding director Jeff Hancock to make the submission, but the document filed includes non-existent sources that seem to have been hallucinated by ChatGPT or another large language model (LLM).

Questionable Sources

Hancock’s affidavit cites a 2023 study published in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics titled “The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior.” However, according to the Minnesota Reformer, there is no record of that study in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics or any other publication.

Another source cited in Hancock’s declaration, “Deepfakes and the Illusion of Authenticity: Cognitive Processes Behind Misinformation Acceptance,” doesn’t seem to exist either.

Lawyers Raise Concerns

Lawyers for Minnesota state Rep. Mary Franson and Christopher Khols — a conservative YouTuber who goes by Mr Reagan — wrote in a filing, “The citation bears the hallmarks of being an artificial intelligence (AI) ‘hallucination,’ suggesting that at least the citation was generated by a large language model like ChatGPT.”

“Plaintiffs do not know how this hallucination wound up in Hancock’s declaration, but it calls the entire document into question, especially when much of the commentary contains no methodology or analytic logic whatsoever.”

Conclusion

The controversy surrounding the use of AI-generated content in the affidavit raises questions about the reliability of the document and the potential influence of AI on the legal system. As AI technology continues to evolve, it is essential to ensure that it is used responsibly and transparently.

FAQs

Q: What is the Minnesota “Use of Deep Fake Technology to Influence An Election” law?
A: The law is a federal lawsuit aimed at regulating the use of deep fake technology to influence elections.

Q: Who is Jeff Hancock?
A: Jeff Hancock is the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab.

Q: What is ChatGPT?
A: ChatGPT is a large language model that can generate human-like text.

Q: What are the implications of AI-generated content in the legal system?
A: The implications of AI-generated content in the legal system are still being explored, but it raises questions about the reliability and transparency of documents and the potential influence of AI on legal proceedings.