Speaker Johnson talks AI, deepfakes and foreign election interference with The Hill

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in an interview with The Hill offered his thoughts on artificial intelligence (AI) and foreign election interference — two hot-button issues that have become increasingly prevalent in the political landscape ahead of November.

Describing himself as a “limited government conservative,” the Speaker acknowledged the concerns surrounding the quickly emerging technology while also warning against overregulation of the tech sphere.

Johnson said Congress needs to take the threat of “deepfakes” seriously, stating the abuses of the technology have been “repulsive,” but also urged for caution.

“You know, any technology can be used for evil,” Johnson told The Hill.

“I think that what you’re going to see right now that various states are trying to step into the space and see how they might be able to control or regulate some of it,” he said. “You’ve got the private sector, of course, is trying to self-correct and they need to. They understand the need of doing that. I’ve spent a lot of time in deep conversations with leaders from Silicon Valley and the industry, and they understand the need of having to do that themselves so that Congress doesn’t overreact and step into the space and stifle innovation.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill and voters have become increasingly vocal about the risks of both AI and AI-generated deepfakes in the context of election integrity.

The Speaker said he has concerns with how the U.S.’s European partners have imposed sweeping regulations on technology, which came after a global push to hold massive tech firms accountable.

“Europe, I feel, has made a big mistake, because they have overregulated the technology, and it has stifled innovation, and it’s created real problems,” he said.

Fears about how the elections could be compromised have ramped up amid a flurry of reports about foreign adversaries’ attempts to meddle with the U.S. presidential election this November.

“Election interference goes right to the heart of who we are as a constitutional republic, and we should have broad bipartisan outrage about that,” Johnson said of these reports.

The Speaker was reacting to the FBI’s announcement a day earlier that Iran sought to share information it hacked from former President Trump’s presidential campaign with President Biden’s campaign. The country has continued to send material from the June hacking to various news outlets, the FBI said.

Johnson was “not surprised” by this news.

“I mean, we know China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are coordinating together. I mean, they’re engaging in hot wars around the globe,” he added. “So, we certainly know that they would like to undermine us with every subversive act that they can devise. And election interference is low-hanging fruit, sadly for them, because of the great use of social media and the board use of social media and all these technologies.”

A Harris campaign official said point-blank Thursday that “the materials were not used,” while the campaign’s Wednesday night statement said staffers who were sent the materials dismissed them as a spear phishing attempt and were not aware the emails had any ties to Iran.

“We have cooperated with the appropriate law enforcement authorities since we were made aware that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation. We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement.

Russia is currently under harsh scrutiny for its attempts to wield influence on the 2024 election. Earlier this week, Microsoft released a report that found Russian influence operations were behind a viral video falsely accusing Vice President Harris of a hit-and-run, while the Justice Department seized more than 30 web domains used by Russia for covert campaigns.

Calling these reports a “serious matter,” Johnson said Congress is still determining an “appropriate response” in conjunction with how the FBI handles the incidents.

“So, the idea that they would still steal campaign information from the Trump campaign and offer it to the Biden campaign is pretty frightening,” he said.

Johnson spoke with The Hill shortly after delivering the opening remarks for the Congressional Hackathon, an annual event that features congressional members, staff and tech industry experts to discuss a range of topics related to the intersection of politics and technology.

In those remarks, the Speaker touted the work of the House’s bipartisan AI Task Force, which was launched last February with a mission of ensuring the U.S.’s leadership in AI innovation while also considering appropriate guardrails to the technology.

The task force is expected to roll out a report of its findings in November, and Johnson stressed the work that was done on both sides of the aisle to reach this point.

“And that’s [bipartisan work] unusual, but we did that because we don’t believe it’s a partisan issue,” he told The Hill. “It shouldn’t be. We’re trying to prevent it from becoming that, of course. And I think what the report will reflect its due in November is kind of a set of sort of guidelines or guideposts for Congress, as we think about AI.”

As he did during the opening meeting of the task force, Johnson stressed Thursday he does not believe the panel should be rolling out a new regulatory or federal agency to address AI.

The task force has “collected a lot of insight and expertise and data, and they’re pulling out that together in a summary so they can present it to Congress as a set of sort of principles to follow,” he said.

It comes as more than 100 bills regarding the use of AI remain under consideration in Congress. When asked what he would like to see passed before the end of this year, the Speaker pointed to the forthcoming report and again urged caution.

“Our biggest competitor is China in the space, and they are advancing exponentially with this. So, if we, if Congress, stumbles into this, or overregulates the technology, it could have very serious implications for us with regard national security,” he said. “I’m sure I know there’s lots of legislation proposed lots of ideas out there, but I think we want to be very careful to allow the private sector still to lead on this. And that, to me, that’s one of the guiding principles.”