Conceptually, in the first reading, the Saeima has already supported the changes to the law proposed by the President Edgars Rinkevičs, providing for the obligation to clearly indicate if artificial intelligence is used in political campaigning.
However, industry experts emphasize that in that case, all campaign materials would have to be labeled, as artificial intelligence tools are used very widely, for example, to improve image quality. In the opinion of professionals, such a regulation should be agreed upon, which would target the use of artificial intelligence to deceive voters and unfairly influence the results.
Ilma Kauliņa
Chairman of the Board of the Environmental Advertising Association
“The most interesting thing is to do what is not allowed in this artificial intelligence. There’s the thrill of doing it five minutes early and watching you turn the world upside down. It already has all its essence and creativity.”
Edgars Stafeckis
Legal advisor to the President
“Certainly agreeing with colleagues from the advertising industry, if absolutely everything is labeled, then the goal will not be achieved. There was never such a goal either. But the idea has been that in those cases where it is important for the voter to know that he has an artificial intelligence system in front of him, he knows it. But in the case where the poster is color enhanced by some special program, he may not even know it, and it’s not that important.”
Political scientist Iveta Kažoka points out that it is still necessary to clarify how to distinguish between administrative and criminal violations.
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Iveta Kažoka
political scientist, director of “Providus”.
“For example, when a candidate spreads a falsehood about himself, but the voter does not really know that it is not true information, but at the same time it is not dramatic information, in such a case there should be administrative responsibility for it. It’s not like suddenly creating an image of a president who kind of says ‘vote for this candidate!’, which is much more harmful and where there should be criminal sanctions as well.”
On the other hand, political scientist Filips Rajevskis believes that the most important thing is to prevent foreign interference in the Latvian elections.
Philip Rajewski
political scientist, co-owner of SIA “Mediju tilts”.
“Vladimir Vladimirovičs Putin” will personally call the Russian voter in Russian to tell him what not to do in Latvia. And how do we recognize it and how do we combat it? Such phone bots that would work before the election. Three days before the election, it turns on, loads a hundred thousand phone numbers, and processes them all. And it works at the same time, it doesn’t get tired.”
How to address the unfair use of artificial intelligence in pre-election campaigning is not yet clear, and extensive discussions are still expected.
Oleg Burov
Head of the State Administration Commission of the Saeima, GKR
“We want to pass a law, so we cooperate with professionals, with advertising agencies, so that it is not the case that we pass a law and then we are told that it is a legal fraud.”
According to the head of the commission, the agreement on the new regulation should be reached by the end of the year so that it will be valid before the municipal elections, which will take place next summer.
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Tags: Saeima started work regulation artificial intelligence political campaigning
