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\n

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz blocked an effort from Sen. Marsha Blackburn to pass her bill on the chamber floor Wednesday afternoon that would allow people to sue over artificial intelligence \u201cdeepfakes\u201d \u2014 the latest episode in a long-running public rift between the two Republicans over AI legislation.<\/p>\n

Blackburn of Tennessee argued the measure, the NO FAKES Act, would guarantee protections against the \u201cproliferation harmful AI-created deepfakes\u201d while ensuring artists and creative work are not impeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bill would establish clear guardrails that protect our creators in Tennessee and across the entire country, in addition to establishing a federal intellectual property right in every American\u2019s voice and visual likeness,\u201d she said in a floor speech.<\/p>\n

Blackburn sought to advance the bill by unanimous consent, a process that does not require a roll call vote but does permit any single senator to show up in person to object. That person Wednesday was Cruz, who argued the bill was not ready for primetime.<\/p>\n

The Texas lawmaker said he had free speech concerns about the legislation as currently written \u2014 for example, would the AI-generated photos and videos like the ones frequently promoted on President Donald Trump\u2019s social media accounts be deemed out of compliance? The same could end up being true for news parody websites like The Onion, Cruz added.<\/p>\n

Blackburn said that free speech would not be jeopardized by her proposal, and that the bill instead targets online scamming activities that would certainly be illegal if conducted offline. Cruz was not convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy to work with you,\u201d Cruz ultimately told Blackburn. \u201cBut at least as of now, I object.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz and Blackburn have been at odds on the issue for some time, dating back to when a five-year deal to block states<\/u><\/a> from enacting their own AI rules and regulations collapsed during One Big Beautiful Bill Act negotiations in 2025.<\/p>\n

While Cruz voted for the NO FAKES Act in the Senate Judiciary Committee over the summer, he was unable to help broker a larger agreement with Blackburn and the White House to include it as part of a package of bills addressing preemption of state AI regulations and kids online safety issues.<\/p>\n

Cruz also undercut Blackburn\u2019s efforts during an Oval Office meeting over the summer, where he told Trump the package had no chance of moving in the Senate. The president ultimately held off<\/u><\/a> on an endorsement.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a NO FAKES co-sponsor, emphasized the broad support from the creative industry that lawmakers have worked to build.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most baked, ready-to-go AI-related bill there is,\u201d Coons said as he walked onto the Senate floor Wednesday. \u201cWe’ve done hearings, we’ve done technical assistance, we’ve done markups. It\u2019s broadly bipartisan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz, who objected Tuesday to an attempt to pass an AI safety bill by unanimous consent, countered that his bill making it a crime to knowingly publish sexually explicit images on the internet without the subjects\u2019 consent \u2014 real or AI-generated \u2014 is the only major AI bill to become law in the 119th Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz blocked an effort from Sen. Marsha Blackburn to pass her bill on the chamber floor Wednesday afternoon that would allow people to sue over artificial intelligence \u201cdeepfakes\u201d \u2014 the latest episode in a long-running public rift between the two Republicans over AI legislation. Blackburn of Tennessee argued the measure, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}