Oregon's first AI related bills go to governor

Oregon’s first bills dealing with artificial intelligence are on their way to Gov. Tina Kotek.

Senate Bill 1571 won final approval Wednesday, March 6, on a Senate vote of 24-5. The House cleared an amended version the previous day, 52-3. It requires disclosure of artificial intelligence, described as synthetic media, when used in campaign advertising and other communications.

The bill’s chief sponsor was Sen. Aaron Woods, a Democrat from Wilsonville and a former technology executive.

House Bill 4153 also won final legislative approval Wednesday on a Senate vote of 26-3. The House passed it 52-0 earlier in the week. Sponsored by Rep, Daniel Nguyen, D-Lake Oswego, it sets up a 14-member task force to look at its ramifications. A task force includes members other than legislators.

Nguyen said his bill is focused on developing common terms and concepts for use when lawmakers discuss related legislation in future sessions.

“A task force allows for a collaborative conversation with policy makers and industry leaders, researchers and other stakeholders,” he said in a statement after the vote. “As we stand at the precipice of this technological revolution, we need to position our state as a leader in responsible AI governance.”

Disclosure of AI use in campaign advertising would be enforced by the Oregon secretary of state, who is the state’s chief elections officer. If the secretary, a candidate for the job, or a supporting or opposing political committee were the subject of a complaint, the attorney general would be empowered to investigate it.

The AI disclosure bill got political momentum prior to the New Hampshire presidential primary Jan. 23, when a voice mimicking President Joe Biden urged voters not to cast ballots but await the Nov. 5 general election. Biden won the Democratic primary despite his name not being on the ballot, and his campaign said it did not initiate the robocalls to voters. A Democratic political operative, Steve Kramer, later identified himself as the originator of the robocalls.

The House made one amendment to the original AI bill passed by the Senate on Feb. 26.

As described in a summary by Melissa Leoni, an analyst for the Legislative Policy and Research Office for the House Rules Committee:

“The amendment changes ‘fundamentally’ to ‘materially’ in the definition of synthetic media so that the use of synthetic media must produce a materially different understanding or impression than a reasonable person would have from the unaltered, original version of the image, audio recording, or video recording.”