The Victorian Greens have called for a ban on deceptive AI-generated political deepfakes and truth in political advertising laws, following Victorian Labor posting an AI-generated deepfake attack video of the Opposition Leader and One Nation Leader.
At a time we're seeing trust in politicians at an all time low and an increased risk of political violence, the Greens say that the last thing political parties should be doing is using highly deceptive AI deepfakes.
The Greens are calling for truth in political advertising laws and a ban on political parties using AI-generated deepfakes with strong penalties for parties that deliberately mislead voters.
South Australia already has laws banning misleading political advertising and deceptive AI-generated election material, while New South Wales has also introduced restrictions on political deepfakes.
The Greens have also reiterated their call for all political parties to sign a Memorandum of Understanding committing to basic standards of behaviour during the election campaign, including rejecting misinformation, deceptive AI content, intimidation and personal attacks.
As stated by Victorian Greens Leader Ellen Sandell:
"These AI slop deepfakes are not only really ugly politics and a new low when it comes to political parties' dirty campaign tactics, but they're really dangerous when it comes to our democracy. At a time when public trust in politicians is at an all time low and there's an increased risk of political violence, the last thing we need is political parties stoking the flames of misinformation or muddying the waters about what's real and what's not.
"Victorians deserve to know that what they're seeing and hearing from political parties is real. It shouldn't be too much to ask that politicians tell the truth. If the Labor party spent a bit more time actually putting forward a positive vision for the future, then maybe they'd be able to get some actual real people to appear in their videos and they wouldn't have to rely on AI slop."
