According to Cointelegraph, California Governor Gavin Newsom has just passed a new law to combat politically themed AI deepfakes during the election. The move came shortly after Elon Musk released a spoof video of Kamala Harris' campaign ad on X, which used AI voice manipulation technology to make Harris look like she was an incompetent presidential candidate.

The new law, AB 2839, takes effect immediately and prohibits individuals and groups from intentionally sharing election deep fakes and other "substantially deceptive content." The current law only prohibits the distribution of such content within 60 days before an election, and the new law extends the ban to 120 days before an election, and sometimes even 60 days after the election.

Newsom also signed two other laws, AB 2355, which requires labels on political ads that are generated or substantially altered using AI, and AB 2655, which requires social media platforms with more than 1 million California users to block election-related deceptive content during a specified period and remove content within 72 hours of receiving a user report.

All three laws apply only to California, and Newsom signed them during a fireside chat with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. In addition, Newsom signed two other laws on Sept. 17, AB 1836 and AB 2602, which are designed to better protect performers' digital image rights.