Gov. DeSantis OKs disclosure requirement for AI in political ads

As campaign season ramps up, candidates in Florida must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence in creating their advertisements, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure imposing the new requirement.

Under HB 919, sponsored by Hialeah Republican Rep. Alex Rizo, political ads using AI must have a disclosure within the ad. Specifically, the disclosure must be in 12-point font for a print ad, be “clearly readable” and take up 4% of the space of a television or video ad, be “viewable without the user taking any action” in an internet ad and be at least 3 seconds in an audio ad on the radio.

As defined in the bill, “generative artificial intelligence” means “a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, emulate the structure and characteristics of input data in order to generate derived synthetic content including images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.”

The new law also carries a criminal penalty. Violations of the disclosure requirement are a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by a prison sentence of up to one year and a $1,000 fine.

The Florida Elections Commission can also receive complaints of violations of the requirement and impose their own punishment, likely a fine.

The bill passed easily with bipartisan support, receiving just eight “no” votes in the House, all from Democrats. Some of them expressed concern about the criminal penalty included in the measure, as well as its provision putting the responsibility on the candidate or entity paying and approving the ad to include the disclosure.

Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Miami Democrat, for example, was concerned that a third-party vendor might not tell a candidate AI was used in an ad before it was aired, then end up triggering potential jail time under the new law. The original Senate version of the bill didn’t include a criminal penalty.

The law takes effect July 1.