Ohio officials could weigh crackdown on AI deepfakes, making Election Day a holiday

Ohio lawmakers recently announced plans to introduce two bills that would regulate artificial intelligence and make Election Day in the state a holiday right before the midterms.

State Reps. Adam Matthews, R-Lebanon, and Ty Mathews, R-Findlay, introduced House Bill 185 to crack down on AI-generated content, specifically pornographic or nonconsensual.

“Everyone should have the dignity of themselves, and the way that they can present themselves out into the world,” Matthews told News 5 Cleveland. “It’s based on protecting the name, image, and likeness of everyday Ohioans, whether that’s using AI or whether that’s using Photoshop, or whether that’s using any type of image manipulation with or without AI.”

HB 185 would allow everyone to own their image. If someone uses someone’s face without that person’s approval, the person responsible for making an AI image would face civil penalties of tens of thousands of dollars.

Additionally, a person who creates or distributes malicious AI content to extort a person being deepfaked will be charged with a third-degree felony. The only exception to malicious deepfakes being legal, according to the bill, would be the inclusion of a clear watermark indicating that the image was created by AI.

However, even if a person creates fake pornographic deepfakes or deepfakes of a child, including a watermark would not help, and the person behind an AI tool will be punished.

Critics of the bill, including the Motion Picture Association of America and Case Western Reserve University professors Eric Chaffee and Erman Ayday, said that it would infringe upon the First Amendment rights of Americans, with Ayday adding that he doubts the lawmakers would be able to enforce the law if Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signs it.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers in Ohio proposed Senate Bill 335 to make the general election a public holiday in the state, suggesting it be called “Democracy Day.”

“If elected officials in Ohio really respect voters, we should respect them enough to allow them to get to the ballot on election day,” state Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, said, per the Ohio Capital Journal. “Holidays are considered special days, and that’s one of the things that I think we need to always be doing — trying to educate the young people in Ohio about the importance of voting.”

Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s team, however, said that the holiday is not needed because “Ohio has one of the most accessible election schedules in the nation, with nearly a month of early voting, including evening and weekend hours.”

“Every day’s a holiday when you can return your ballot from the comfort of your own home. We also have a very generous 13-hour voting window on Election Day itself, and we encourage all employers to give their employees time off, if needed, to engage in their civic duty,” LaRose’s spokesperson Ben Kindel said.