Independent Senator David Pocock to introduce bill against AI deepfakes

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Independent Senator David Pocock is introducing a bill to the Senate today to ensure safeguards are put in place to protect against the generation of AI deepfake material. The proposed bill will give greater powers to the eSafety Commissioner to force the removal of harmful deepfake content and establish a complaints system for victims.

Transcript

00:00Sure, my bill is called My Face, My Rights and really just legislates the fact that you

00:08own your face, you own your voice, you own your likeness and ensure that if someone deepfakes

00:15you that you have an avenue to actually get that taken down and potentially actually go

00:20through a process of recovering funds for damages.

00:25And currently nothing like that, no protections exist?

00:27No, we've seen the government I think asleep at the wheel when it comes to regulating against

00:32the misuse of artificial intelligence.

00:35Australians know how quickly it's improving and what the new models are doing, what you

00:40can generate in terms of photos and videos, and yet we've seen Parliament not keep up.

00:45And I just don't see why we would allow people not to be able to own their face, own their

00:52voice, own their likeness.

00:54This is part of being human and we live in a world now where it shouldn't depend on who

01:00has the best software or the worst ethics to allow deepfakes of people and the misuse of

01:05them.

01:06Does this legislation stop content from being made and getting online or is it more a response

01:12to the content that then is really just produced online?

01:18It's very hard to regulate against some of the software that is based overseas and Australians

01:25accessing it and deepfaking people.

01:27But this says that that is illegal.

01:29It is illegal to deepfake someone without their consent.

01:33And we desperately need safeguards in place against the misuse of AI.

01:39Sorry, Senator.

01:40How would this legislation be enforced?

01:44So it strengthens the Online Safety Act and the Privacy Act to actually ensure that you

01:49do own your face, you own your voice, you own your likeness.

01:53And then a very clear avenue to actually lodge a complaint, get things taken down and then

01:59potentially go through the civil process.

02:03Negotiations over this have been going on for, I believe, around two years now.

02:07It's the last sitting week for parliament for this year.

02:10Do you think there's appetite for it?

02:11Is it going to get across the line?

02:14The government has a policy of not supporting private senators' bills.

02:17I think that's not a great way to run things.

02:21I think you should be looking at ideas regardless of who they come from.

02:24I'm putting this forward in good faith.

02:27And it deals with, I think, a huge hole in our laws in the face of artificial intelligence.

02:33So it's something I'll certainly be talking to the government about, talking to my colleagues

02:36in the Senate about potentially sending it to an inquiry next year and really trying to

02:40build support behind this, I think, really sensible idea.

02:44Would you want to launch it all off the legislation that the federal government

02:47passed in 2024 that criminalised the transmission of artificially generated sexual material of

02:54an adult by way of a carriage service without consent?

02:59It's a slightly different approach here.

03:01You know, the bar to press criminal charges is quite high.

03:07This essentially provides everyday Australians with a way to quickly get images, videos, voice

03:14clones taken down quickly and then potentially proceed down the path of pressing civil charges.

03:21And I think we're living in an age where we're seeing more and more artificially generated content.

03:29And it's pretty easy now to deep fake someone.

03:32And we have to say that is not OK.

03:35Your face belongs to you.

03:36Well, we saw how easy you did it before the last election with the two leaders displaying

03:42it that way.

03:43We'll wait and watch with interest this week.

03:45But just while I've got you, Senator, on the environmental laws that are looking to dominate

03:49the last sitting week of parliament, Murray Watt has said it's now or never to pass these

03:55laws.

03:56And he's happy to deal further, indeed, with the coalition or the Greens.

03:59What does an acceptable deal look like to you?

04:02And what does a disaster look like?

04:04I mean, new environmental laws have to actually protect nature.

04:09On Friday, I wrote to both the prime minister and Murray Watt, the environmental minister, outlining

04:15the 15 things that I've heard from my consultations.

04:18I've held roundtables.

04:19I've engaged in the Senate committee process.

04:22I've spoken to environmental organisations, spoken to business.

04:26And I've said to them, these are the 15 things I think that need to change to actually have

04:30environmental laws that protect nature and provide certainty to business.

04:34I think we're a long way away from that.

04:36There was basically no one in the Senate committee process who said that these bills as drafted

04:41are good to go.

04:43So, you know, it's going to be a very interesting week in the Senate.

04:46I'm looking at your amendments here, your 15 points that you just outlined there.

04:50Are they in any particular order?

04:52Because I noticed that the first one is to remove the carve out that excludes the regional

04:56forest agreements from the laws.

04:58Are there any deal breakers for you?

05:00Because 15, that's a lot of points to compromise on.

05:04Well, it's 1500 pages of legislation.

05:06So there's a lot of detail to go through and things to get right.

05:10You know, things like the exemption from our environmental laws for native forest logging.

05:16That clearly has to change.

05:18There's exemptions for land clearing.

05:20Those things have to change.

05:22You actually have to have an independent EPA that is actually independent.

05:25It can't just be independent by name.

05:28You know, I think there's a range of things that if we if we are serious, you know, we

05:32we are the world leaders in extinction.

05:35We have ecosystems in this country that are on the brink of collapse.

05:39And so as a parliament, we have to get this right.

05:42The Senate inquiry actually goes till March.

05:45And I think with 1500 pages of legislation, it's probably right that we really are digging

05:49into the into the details and ensuring that they're actually going to deliver.

05:53And so given the compressed timeframe, you know, the government seems to be in an awful

05:58hurry to just get these done and get them out of the way.

06:00I think that's the wrong approach.

06:02But given that I've said to them, well, these are the things that I think need to change

06:05to actually have my support for this bill.

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