As radio faces threats from the growing misuse of AI technology, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers is looking to safeguard journalists, air talent, and more creators by establishing federal transparency standards for AI-generated material.
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) have reintroduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media, or COPIED, Act.
The COPIED Act would require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop guidelines for watermarking, content provenance, and synthetic media detection. The legislation would also create cybersecurity protections to prevent tampering with this identifying information.
Importantly for journalists and radio broadcasters, the COPIED Act would prohibit the unauthorized use of their reporting, on-air work, and other original content to train AI models or produce synthetic content. Content owners would gain the ability to maintain control over their material, including the right to attach provenance information that cannot be removed.
The bill further grants enforcement authority to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general and gives individuals the right to pursue legal action for unauthorized use.
The COPIED Act has received support from organizations across journalism, broadcasting, and creative industries, including the NAB, SAG-AFTRA, the Television Academy, NewsGuild-CWA, the News/Media Alliance, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Recording Academy, the National Music Publishers’ Association, and the RIAA.
Similar legislation received support from all fifty state broadcasters’ associations, joined by the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, in the previous Congress.
NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said, “Deepfakes pose a significant threat to the integrity of broadcasters’ trusted journalism. We are grateful to Ranking Member Cantwell and Sens. Blackburn and Heinrich for reintroducing this bill to protect the authenticity of the vital local and national news that radio and television stations provide our communities.”
“We also applaud efforts to prohibit the use of broadcasters’ news content to train generative AI systems without express consent and compensation to the news creator. We look forward to working with the committee to help advance this bill and these fundamental principles critical to our ability to continue serving communities with trusted news,” he added.
Sen. Cantwell commented, “The bipartisan COPIED Act I introduced with Senator Blackburn will provide much-needed transparency around AI-generated content. The COPIED Act will also put creators, including local journalists, artists and musicians, back in control of their content with a provenance and watermark process that is very much needed.”
Sen. Heinrich said, “Deepfakes are a real threat to our democracy and to Americans’ safety and well-being. I’m proud to support Senator Cantwell’s COPIED Act that will provide the technical tools needed to help crack down on harmful and deceptive AI-generated content and better protect professional journalists and artists from having their content used by AI systems without their consent. Congress needs to step up and pass this legislation to protect the American people.”
