Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called for Congress to move quickly on artificial intelligence regulation, saying lawmakers can begin with targeted measures addressing deepfakes, AI friendship bots for children and model security.
Murphy Outlines Three AI Regulation Priorities
On Wednesday, in a post on X, Murphy said, "At the UN yesterday, I talked about the need for Congress to move fast on AI regulation, while not laboring under the illusion we have to do it all at once."
He said there is "some low-hanging fruit we can start with – like model security, deepfakes, and protecting kids."
Murphy Targets Deepfakes, AI Bots
Speaking at a United Nations General Assembly AI forum, Murphy said the "deepfake threat is already real," arguing that people increasingly have difficulty determining whether online content is authentic.
He said Congress could "outlaw them in politics or require clear identification or watermarks" in other contexts.
Murphy also called AI "friendship bots" a threat to children. "Friendship bots, as I mentioned before, a poison for our kids, a poison," he said, adding that lawmakers could ban them broadly or "outlaw them for kids."
On advanced AI models, he proposed a potential approval process involving third-party review to address risks as systems become more capable.
"Those three things are achievable, not terribly political and could foreseeably get done," Murphy said.
Altman, Amodei Push AI Safety at UN
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared before the U.N. Security Council to discuss AI risks and opportunities.
OpenAI representatives said he advocated for shared AI safety standards while supporting continued development and avoiding excessive control by a few companies.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also participated remotely and called for binding AI regulations and safety standards, including slowing frontier AI development to allow safety efforts to keep pace.
Efforts to Tackle AI Deepfakes
In July, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) reintroduced the AI Ads Act to prohibit fraudulent AI-generated political content from misrepresenting candidates and campaigns.
In June, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) backed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which would penalize the publication or threatened publication of nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes, and require platforms to remove reported content within 48 hours.
Earlier this year, YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google expanded a pilot program allowing politicians, government officials and journalists to detect AI-generated videos of their likenesses and request removals.
The company also supported the NO FAKES Act.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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