Gong-Gershowitz Named Chair of AI Working Group, Pushes Accountability for Big Tech

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Reflecting her yearslong effort in regulating artificial intelligence (AI) companies and products, state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, has been named chair of the House Democratic AI Working Group.

“Technology is accelerating at a breakneck speed,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “It’s important that we don’t let that acceleration leave our regulations in the dust. I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead continued discussions over how we can protect Illinoisans’ rights while ensuring the future is built in Illinois.”

Gong-Gershowitz previously passed the Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act, a landmark bill which protects individuals from unauthorized reproductions of their voice or likeness via the use of AI, and the Digital Forgeries Act, which created a new cause of action against any person who creates or distributes a digitally altered sexual image, or deepfake, of an individual without their consent.

Gong-Gershowitz is currently pushing for additional protections against AI products, including:

• House Bill 5044, which would define chatbots as products and establish that providers have a duty to ensure that the use of a chatbot does not cause injury to a user. 

• House Bill 4557, which would create the Digital Forgeries in Politics Act, placing new disclosure requirements on the use of digital manipulation in images, video and audio in political advertising. 

“Artificial intelligence has the power to produce countless breakthroughs in a wide array of fields,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “But it also has the power to undermine fair elections and cause serious harm to individuals, and we need to rein in those damaging prospects.”