Comment by Daniel Sayre

I have faith in the people of Maine to do what 25 other states have already done; red states and blue states; to regulate this kind of malicious and intentionally deceptive use of AI or other information technology to deceive voters. There is nothing substantially novel in this bill when compared to laws that have been passed in states across the political spectrum, or the color wheel, if you prefer; Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Utah, to just name some of the examples. The problem is serious; it is an issue of protecting authentic communication with voters by putting up guardrails against deliberately inauthentic communication with voters. Parody and satire are carved out; there is an awful lot of jurisprudence around what constitutes parody and satire. I think the courts in Maine and the people of Maine will be able to tell the difference. It’s just a bill to provide a disclaimer, which I think in this day and age is a clear necessity.