II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3875 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide further 

transparency for the use of content that is substantially generated by 

artificial intelligence in political advertisements by requiring such advertisements to include a statement within the contents of the advertisements if generative AI was used to generate any image, audio, or video 

footage in the advertisements, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 6, 2024 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and 

Administration 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 

provide further transparency for the use of content that 

is substantially generated by artificial intelligence in political advertisements by requiring such advertisements 

to include a statement within the contents of the advertisements if generative AI was used to generate any 

image, audio, or video footage in the advertisements, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘AI Transparency in 

3 Elections Act of 2024’’. 

4 SEC. 2. REQUIRING DISCLAIMERS ON ADVERTISEMENTS 

5 CONTAINING CONTENT SUBSTANTIALLY GEN6 ERATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

7 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Section 318 of the Federal 

8 Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120) is 

9 amended by adding at the end the following new sub10 section: 

11 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL DISCLAIMER FOR COVERED COMMU12 NICATIONS CONTAINING CONTENT SUBSTANTIALLY GEN13 ERATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.— 

14 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub15 section: 

16 ‘‘(A) COVERED COMMUNICATION.— 

17 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘covered 

18 communication’ means a communication 

19 through any broadcasting station, news20 paper, magazine, outdoor advertising facil21 ity, mailing, telephone bank, internet or 

22 other digital medium, or any other type of 

23 general public political advertising that— 

24 ‘‘(I) expressly advocates for or 

25 against the nomination or election of 

26 a candidate; 


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1 ‘‘(II) refers to a candidate at any 

2 time during the period beginning 120 

3 days before the date of a primary 

4 election or nominating caucus or con5 vention and ending on the date on 

6 which a general election occurs; or 

7 ‘‘(III) solicits a contribution for a 

8 candidate or political committee or 

9 any other person who makes disburse10 ments for communications described 

11 in subclause (I) or (II). 

12 ‘‘(ii) VOICE AND LIKENESS.—A com13 munication that invokes the likeness or 

14 voice of a candidate shall be treated as a 

15 communication that refers to such can16 didate. 

17 ‘‘(B) GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTEL18 LIGENCE.—The term ‘generative artificial intel19 ligence’ means artificial intelligence technology 

20 that uses machine learning (including deep21 learning models, natural language processing, 

22 or other computational processing techniques of 

23 similar or greater complexity) to generate text, 

24 images, audio, video, or other media. 


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1 ‘‘(C) SUBSTANTIALLY GENERATED BY AR2 TIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.— 

3 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘sub4 stantially generated by artificial intel5 ligence’ means an image, audio, or video 

6 that was created or materially altered 

7 using generative artificial intelligence. 

8 ‘‘(ii) EXCEPTION.—Such term does 

9 not include an image, audio, or video 

10 that— 

11 ‘‘(I) has only minor alterations 

12 by generative artificial intelligence (in13 cluding cosmetic adjustments, color 

14 editing, cropping, resizing, and other 

15 immaterial uses); and 

16 ‘‘(II) does not create a fun17 damentally different understanding 

18 than a reasonable person would have 

19 from an unaltered version of the 

20 media. 

21 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENT.—If a covered communica22 tion contains an image, audio, or video that was sub23 stantially generated by artificial intelligence, the cov24 ered communication shall include, in a clear and 

25 conspicuous manner, a statement that the covered 


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1 communication contains such an image, audio, or 

2 video. 

3 ‘‘(3) SAFE HARBOR FOR DETERMINING CLEAR

4 AND CONSPICUOUS MANNER.—A statement required 

5 under this subsection shall be considered to be made 

6 in a clear and conspicuous manner if the statement 

7 meets the following requirements: 

8 ‘‘(A) IMAGE COVERED COMMUNICA9 TIONS.—In the case of an image that is a cov10 ered communication, the statement— 

11 ‘‘(i) appears in letters at least as large 

12 as the majority of the text in the covered 

13 communication or otherwise meets the re14 quirements under subsection (c)(1); 

15 ‘‘(ii) meets the requirements of para16 graphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c); 

17 ‘‘(iii) states that the covered commu18 nication was created or materially altered 

19 by artificial intelligence; and 

20 ‘‘(iv) is permanently affixed to the 

21 covered communication. 

22 ‘‘(B) AUDIO COVERED COMMUNICA23 TIONS.—In the case of an audio covered com24 munication, the statement— 


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1 ‘‘(i) is spoken in a clearly audible and 

2 intelligible manner at the beginning or end 

3 of the covered communication and lasts not 

4 fewer than 4 seconds; and 

5 ‘‘(ii) includes the following audio 

6 statement in a clearly spoken manner: 

7 ‘lllllllllll used artificial 

8 intelligence to generate the contents of this 

9 communication.’ (with the blank filled in 

10 with the name of person who made the dis11 bursement to pay for such covered commu12 nication). 

13 ‘‘(C) VIDEO COVERED COMMUNICA14 TIONS.—In the case of a video covered commu15 nication that also includes audio, the statement 

16 is made both in— 

17 ‘‘(i) a written format that meets the 

18 requirements of subparagraph (A) and ap19 pears throughout the length of the video 

20 covered communication; and 

21 ‘‘(ii) an audible format that meets the 

22 requirements of subparagraph (B).’’. 

23 (b) ENFORCEMENT.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 309(a)(4)(C)(i) of 

2 the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 

3 U.S.C. 30109(a)(4)(C))(i)) is amended— 

4 (A) in the matter before subclause (I), by 

5 inserting ‘‘or a qualified disclaimer require6 ment’’ after ‘‘a qualified disclosure require7 ment’’; and 

8 (B) in subclause (II)— 

9 (i) by striking ‘‘a civil money penalty 

10 in an amount determined, for violations of 

11 each qualified disclosure requirement’’ and 

12 inserting ‘‘a civil money penalty— 

13 ‘‘(aa) for violations of each quali14 fied disclosure requirement, in an 

15 amount determined’’; 

16 (ii) by striking the period at the end 

17 and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

18 (iii) by adding at the end the fol19 lowing new item: 

20 ‘‘(bb) for violations of each quali21 fied disclaimer requirement, in an 

22 amount which is determined under a 

23 schedule of penalties which is estab24 lished and published by the Commis25 sion and which takes into account the 


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1 existence of previous violations by the 

2 person and how broadly the commu3 nication is distributed and such other 

4 factors as the Commission considers 

5 appropriate, provided that any such 

6 civil penalty shall not exceed $50,000 

7 per covered communication.’’. 

8 (2) FAILURE TO RESPOND.—Section 

9 309(a)(4)(C)(ii) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 

10 30109(a)(4)(C)(ii)) is amended by striking the pe11 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘, except that in the 

12 case of a violation of a qualified disclaimer require13 ment, failure to timely respond after the Commission 

14 has notified the person of an alleged violation under 

15 subsection (a)(1) shall constitute the person’s admis16 sion of the factual allegations of the complaint.’’. 

17 (3) QUALIFIED DISCLAIMER REQUIREMENT DE18 FINED.—Section 309(a)(4)(C) of such Act (52 

19 U.S.C. 30109(a)(4)(C)) is amended by redesignating 

20 clause (v) as clause (vi) and by inserting after clause 

21 (iv) the following new clause: 

22 ‘‘(v) In this subparagraph, the term ‘quali23 fied disclaimer requirement’ means the require24 ment of section 318(e)(2).’’. 


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1 (4) APPLICATION.—Clause (vi) of section 

2 309(a)(4)(C) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 

3 30109(a)(4)(C)), as redesignated by paragraph (3), 

4 is amended— 

5 (A) by striking ‘‘shall apply with respect to 

6 violations’’ and inserting ‘‘shall apply— 

7 ‘‘(I) with respect to violations of 

8 qualified disclosure requirements’’; 

9 (B) by striking the period at the end and 

10 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

11 (C) by adding at the end the following new 

12 subclause: 

13 ‘‘(II) with respect to violations of 

14 qualified disclaimer requirements oc15 curring on or after the date of the en16 actment of the AI Transparency in 

17 Elections Act of 2024.’’. 

18 (5) TIME OF JUDICIAL REVIEW.—Section 

19 309(a)(8)(A) of the Federal Election Campaign Act 

20 of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30109(a)(8)(A)) is amended by 

21 inserting ‘‘(45-day period in the case of any com22 plaint alleging a violation of section 318(e)(2))’’ 

23 after ‘‘120-day period’’. 

24 (c) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 90 days after the 

25 date of enactment of the AI Transparency in Elections 


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1 Act of 2024, the Federal Election Commission shall, in 

2 consultation with the Director of the National Institute 

3 of Standards and Technology, promulgate a regulation to 

4 carry out the amendments made by subsections (a) and 

5 (b), including— 

6 (1) criteria for determining whether a covered 

7 communication (as defined in section 318(e) of the 

8 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as added 

9 by subsection (a)) contains an image, audio, or video 

10 substantially generated by artificial intelligence (as 

11 defined in such section); and 

12 (2) requirements for the contents of the state13 ment required under section 318(e)(2) of the Fed14 eral Election Campaign Act of 1971, as added by 

15 subsection (a). 

16 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

17 this section shall— 

18 (1) apply with respect to any communication 

19 made after the date of enactment of this Act; and 

20 (2) take effect without regard to whether the 

21 Federal Election Commission has promulgated regu22 lations to carry out such amendments. 

23 SEC. 3. REPORTS. 

24 Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 

25 of this Act, and biannually thereafter, the Federal ElecVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:44 Mar 12, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3875.IS S3875

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1 tion Commission shall submit a report to the Committee 

2 on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Com3 mittee on House Administration of the House of Rep4 resentatives that includes— 

5 (1) an assessment of the compliance with and 

6 the enforcement of the requirements of subsection 

7 (e) of section 318 of the Federal Election Campaign 

8 Act of 1971, as added by this Act; and 

9 (2) recommendations for any modifications to 

10 that subsection to assist in carrying out the pur11 poses of that subsection. 

12 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 

13 If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 

14 by this Act, or the application of any such provision or 

15 amendment to any person or circumstance, is held to be 

16 unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, and the appli17 cation of such provision or amendment to any other person 

18 or circumstance, shall not be affected by the holding. 

Æ 


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