H.B. 504 Political Advertising Modifications

What this bill does

H.B. 504 would require printed political advertising that includes visual content generated by artificial intelligence to say so. Content made from templates designed by people would not count as AI-generated under the bill.

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Every vote

• 10 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Government Operations Committee: vote, which it did not pass · Feb 13, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Feb 13, 2026 House Government Operations Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (39 turns)

  1. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:03:09

     to present HP 5 0 4 political advertising modifications. Yes. Thank you so much. Can I connect, if you don't mind? Yeah. Okay. I feel like this needed a little bit more of a visual than I just love to create political ads. So, um, political advertisement came to me from, um, uh, a campaign that we had in our last cycle. Were two candidates. Were using the same, I'm gonna put this over here, the same, um, kind of messaging and in, in their political design. So here we have, in Canva, in Canva, ai, we are using, I just put in, um, create a political mailer design. And then I went through on my phone and did the same thing and got similar political designs. Not too much, but very similar in terms of coloring. And, and of course you could amend and change. Um, in chat GBT, we did a search for two different kind of searches, and we got something similar. Um, so what happened in this specific situation is that when it comes to branding, you wanna be unique and be different, but when you're just generating from ai, it's learning what is being fed into the system. So you can have something very similar in your design without even knowing it. And in this specific race, there was two candidates that had this same messaging, same kind of branding. Um, I don't have examples here of theirs, but I'm just showing that you can, it can create the same idea. Um, with this, we already, um, I did add in lines, um, 70 to 72, where we just have, um, this advertisement includes visual context generated by ai. Um, my career is in marketing. Um, I started as a photographer and graphic designer and as a designer, um, we are people who put things together, elements together for design. This wouldn't take away how you go into Canva and use a template that is created, but this is more of how we're just generating and asking questions of AI to do it for us. Um, and of course there are elements of we are gonna recreate it and whatnot, but this is no different than what we already have in code for visuals, in terms of audio and, um, and video. This is just including the element of print. Um, and I will take any questions if you have any other questions, but that's pretty much my presentation. Alright, Thank you. Mm-hmm.

  2. Committee chair (presiding)1:06:05

     Do you have any questions from the Uh, we do. I will take 'em. Representative Fiefia, go ahead.

  3. Rep. Doug Fiefia1:06:10

     Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I appreciate the good representatives efforts here, and I, I, I like the intent. The, the question I have is just around what counts as AI generated under this bill. Um, I think the term that you use in the language is substantially produced. Um mm-hmm. Something like that. I guess it just seems broad and vague and, and I just, my concern is that we capture AI tools where it's almost integrated in every software, every app today. Um, it just seems a little vague. Can you just explain kind of what is captured

  4. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:06:47

     Under here? Yeah. So in, so either in chat GBT, you can literally ask it. So if I go into here and I say, um, plea or create, and I'm using the Canva AI tool, not any of the templates. So create a mailer for turtles, let's just say, Huh, I need a new one. Perfect. There you go. Um, and so it's, I'm gonna say, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and create this, this already is telling me that it's created by AI itself. So that's pretty much what I'm capturing. Now, if I went into a template and I wanted to create a new, and I wanna use any of these templates, um, they do, some do say AI and, and then most of all, they are generated by a graphic designer. So, or even just a mom who's creating a pamphlet or a flyer. Um, and those would not be catalyzed or be considered for that. So

  5. Rep. Doug Fiefia1:07:57

     Thank you. I guess that's, that's my point is at what point is too much ai, at what point does it need to be labeled AI versus there's AI in this tool, and maybe I generate part of it or use a filter, but it has ai, I, I think I understand your intent, but the way that the language reads mm-hmm. Is pretty broad, that someone could accuse another candidate and say, this was generated by AI and now we're gonna press charges. And that, you know, there's, There's an issue there. Yeah.

  6. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:08:30

     There's, I think what in this situation, it wasn't about pressing charges, it was just, how are we, the messaging was the same, right? So as a voter, you're having very similar messaging or similar visuals for marketing, and you're confusing the, essentially you're gonna confuse the voter on who is who. So one, as a candidate, you wanna be a responsible person in terms of the sense of how you're marketing and branding your own stuff. And two, if you are just leaving it to AI as a tool to generate it for you, then you're, you're, you're gonna pose a risk of it being similar to other candidates. Does that make sense? And this is more of a transparency of saying, as a political candidate, Hey, I did use this tool and this is how it was generated, so that it doesn't have implications on each other as candidates, but more individually. Okay. Thank you. I, I hope that answered your question. I, I Juab I was just point out, uh, Riano, the LRDC, the, the drafting attorney Yes. Sent a message that said that that term is, is in code, that is the code that, or the term that we use in code substantially Already. Mm-hmm. Code Language. It's already code language. Yeah. Yeah. We already, yes. This just includes printed materials. Any other questions? Yes, there are. And I, and, and I think you all, I, I did speak to some of you, and I think it's, um, you know, this came to me one as a, as a artist and designer. And, and, um, and that's kind of true to who I am personally. But I think it's just identifying and learning what, how, what tools we have and being a little bit more transparent as, as a politician. So,

  7. Committee chair (presiding)1:10:10

     Representative Cutler, go ahead.

  8. Rep. Paul A. Cutler1:10:12

     Thank, thank you. First, I wanted to apologize when we spoke earlier, I reference Representative FA Bill from 2024. Oh, I thought it passed. It did not pass. So the, the language in that is, is not in code. So I was, I was wrong there. I, I apologize. But let's take a, uh, hypothetical situation. Mm-hmm. So, hypothetically, representative Malloy, uh, has a campaign template. He goes to Canva or Adobe, uh, Photoshop, and chooses a template that has a, uh, a logo, the red and white colors, and puts his name on it. Mm-hmm. And uses that in a political advertisement. And Representative MacPherson, uh, also goes and uses the same template and puts his name on the same template, but, but, uh, uh, for a political advertisement. And in the third case, Representative Fiefia sees this, these templates and asks AI to create a advertisement that's, that's, uh, uh, for a political advertisement, using this as a, as a guide and creates an almost identical design, uh, to both of these others that used a template. I, I think it would be very difficult as a user to tell the difference between two people using the same template and a non, or, and a standard tool that may use AI and the backend, but creates it from a template versus an AI tool that's creating an image that's substantially similar. So, yes, I, um, that's different than what AI generated images are being created as. So in Adobe, it does say exactly, which, whether it be a template, whether it be an image that it was AI generated, and this is only for AI generated materials. So, so in this case, representative Mc Ferrison used the same template. He does not have to disclose it. Representative Fiefia has the same image with his name on it, but it was generated by AI and he has to disclose it, even though all three images are basically the same. It would be only for the materials that are ai. So I have, I have this up right now. Um, so in, I'm gonna bring up, Thank you for bringing up.

  9. Rep. Doug Fiefia1:12:46speaker not certain

     Yeah. I think my concern is as AI becomes a part of every software tool we use, it's going to be significantly more challenging to determine what was AI AI generated versus a template. Because templates are all gonna be become AI generated, or many of them will be.

  10. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:13:05

      And, and that definitely yes. But that's what I am hoping to eliminate, is that we don't have, we aren't being truthful in what we are using and designing that is already AI generated. So there are already, like the programs and softwares, they already say whether, which ones are AI and not ai. This is more to, to take responsibility even amongst ourselves who are using these as tools to just differentiate. Because the, what I also see is for, this is just a side note, is that, um, some of my elders in my family are like, isn't this great? This is amazing. Well, that was AI generated. So they don't know how to differentiate. But I feel it's our responsibility to say, we know that we're using this as a tool. We're using it for even our own political ads. We're not saying we don't wanna use it, but we wanna start differentiating what is, because there's gonna come a point where it knows us and it generates exactly what we, what we are, we can't differentiate it. And we have to be able to say, this is what the difference is. I am you good?

  11. Rep. Paul A. Cutler1:14:25

      You good representative? Uh, yeah. So, so looking at these, you you were demonstrating, sorry. So what's the, what's the point that you want? So I was trying to see difference here. It didn't as a double screen, so I apologize. Oh. Um, and some of, and I know in some of these they do have, which ones are AI generated? Um, and which ones are not? I can't remember. I'm sorry. I meant to, I, when you were talking about Adobe, I was bringing it up. So let me see. But they do have a filter on here where it does Oh, generated AI only here it is. So if you look at, it's gonna pull it up right now. But if you look at these images, some of them look very realistic. And that's what I'm trying to capture is that when we are designing and creating our own political ads, I mean, we already have to do it in video and we already have to do it in voiceovers, but we haven't included it for print. And so that's really where I'm trying to emphasize is the differences. But yes, in some of these they look very real. But yeah. And, uh, thank you. If I can just one more comment here. I think the challenges for, for audio and video, there are amazing capabilities where you can clone someone else's voices or, or someone else's, um, video image. And so I think the intent was, if, if you're trying to, no, if my friend, uh, Representative Loubet wanted to have Joe Biden do a video for him, that he needs to disclose that you Should Just saying It's a cameo. Mm-hmm. Which is very different than I think creating an image on the background of a mailer or, or, you know, a logo.

  12. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:16:14

      Well, and that, thank you. Yeah. Yes. No, thank you so much for that. And I think that's where, why I wanted to bring this up is because we don't talk about print in the same way, but print, I mean, a lot of what you see in Adobe Stock a photographer took, or AI is now generating it. And so that we're thinking about those are jobs too. Whether it be a photographer, a designer, an an illustrator, um, we can generate them. And, and AI has done a great job with that. But this is just more of opening that conversation for print as well. Okay.

  13. Committee chair (presiding)1:16:50

      Thank you. Thanks representative. Uh, Representative Maloy had a question. Lemme call you right back. He's phoning a friend end.

  14. Rep. A. Cory Maloy1:17:01

      Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. So I think I get this. 'cause what you're showing us here is Adobe stock. So it's this photo stock place where mm-hmm. For years we've gone and photographers, they submit their photography and then they can sell it as stock. So what you're, basically, what you're saying, what we're looking at here, it could be photo generated or it could be AI generated. Mm-hmm. And if I want to use an AI generated photo here, I would download it and use it just like I would a typical photo. Correct. In the old, in the old standard. But they're gonna, they're gonna indicate that it's ai. Correct. Okay. So if, if doing the, uh, like a chat GPT, uh, add created from scratch, and you put in what you want into a chat, in chat GPT, it says, creep me an image. Yeah. Which you were gonna do for me, but you didn't do it. So I might have to go home and do it. But, uh, uh, and so what you're saying is the concern would be that I could do one, it looks great, I love it, and then, uh, Representative Fiefia could do one and it would be very, very similar. Mm-hmm. And so what you're saying is we need, it needs to indicate that it was AI generated, correct? Correct. And, and these services already do that for you, so you know which ones are ai, which ones are not. Okay. But if we do that, uh, then how does that protect me from fia, FIA suing me or me suing him or Whatever? Does it, I don't know if anybody has sued another political candidate other than some other high profile I did. And it You did. And it wasn't, uh, because of AI generated, it was just copying my stuff. But Yeah. And I, and, and you know, I don't know the answer to that necessarily. This is just indicating whether you're using AI or not, but yeah. Okay. I can help you with branding. That's what I do. So it's kind of, it's kind of, uh, like the, the disclosure paid for by the campaign to elect Corum Mulloy. Correct. And, uh, okay. So, so people just know. Yes. Okay. Yes.

  15. Committee chair (presiding)1:19:06

      Thank you. Thank you. Thank you representative. And Then, uh, representative, representative McPherson's got a

  16. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:19:12

      Question for you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so, I understand the intent here, and I think this has been maybe talked on a little bit, but it seems like, uh, and, and clarify for me if I'm wrong, but the intent here is to get to the media that is intentionally trying to mislead people because of the AI generated content.

  17. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:19:30

      Correct. Not necessarily the fact that it's AI generated.

  18. Rep. Matt MacPherson1:19:34

      Correct. So if that's the, I I think that if that's the intent, that there might need to be an adjustment of this language to clarify that particular role. 'cause I think this is, this seems to be geared towards a notice or disclosure of AI of, in and of itself, as though the, it sounds like that from the discussion that we're really trying to get to ensuring that people aren't being misled.

  19. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:20:01

      Correct. By ai. Okay. Thank you. Correct, yes. Thank you. Thank you for that.

  20. Committee chair (presiding)1:20:09

      Alright. And are there any other questions from the committee?

  21. Unknown speaker1:20:13speaker not certain

      I, I've got, I've got just one question. Yes, please. And that is, um, uh, so if I hire a graphic artist mm-hmm. And they don't tell me am I, uh, and they don't tell me that something that they've used is AI generated. What, what happens there?

  22. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:20:31

      Um, well, I would hope the graphic artist wouldn't, would disclose that to you as a graphic artist myself. Um, it is something that we pride ourselves in bringing in, designing our work. So, but If, but if they didn't, If they didn't, I think that you would, you would not be responsible for that. But I don't know. I mean, that could be, that's a really good question. I think that's a great question Be because I'm thinking about not only am I paid folks to do my things mm-hmm. But sometimes my children who are artistic will say, dad, I can fi I'll, I'll, I'll fix that for you. I'll do that. Correct. And I'm just wondering if that's, you Know, and maybe that's where you have the conversation. You know, this is a part of political campaign design and I, you know, in terms of how you have that conversation. But yeah, I, I, I, there's, there's nothing to say, um, that you're gonna be like, you're, there's a consequence. It's just, just being more transparent, if anything.

  23. Committee chair (presiding)1:21:26

      Thank you. Alright. We've got another question yet again from, uh, Representative Fiefia. It's,

  24. Rep. Doug Fiefia1:21:32

      That's the whole story. So I'm gonna go ahead, give a point of information and, and throw a lifeline to my, my friend here. Um, I, I think the gist of this, which I, the more and more I'm looking into this, I'm okay with it. And the reason being is the code already requires any audio or video content a candidate distributes that uses ai. Mm-hmm. The only thing that we're doing with this bill is just adding in printed communications. Mm-hmm. I think that's it. But I think what we've demonstrated here with our questions is we probably can make it clearer in code for all those three audio visual and printed. Mm-hmm. That there is an intent that we wanna make sure if your intent is to, um, confuse voters, then I think we can add maybe a line that clarifies that. So, yeah, I think overall this is a good bill. I think we can make it just a little bit better by adding clarifications. 'cause I think there are some questions, but overall, I think that's the, yeah. The gist of what this bill is, And I'm happy for the, I'm really happy for this conversation. It's something that, you know, in our own capacity where, where can we find ways to be just a little bit more transparent? So yes. Thank you. Thank you.

  25. Committee chair (presiding)1:22:46

      Alright. Thank you. I don't see any more questions from the committee, so we will go to the, uh, the public that if, if there's anyone here who would like to speak to this bill. And if there's anyone on mine, Seth is back for another bite of the apple.

  26. Committee chair (presiding)1:23:06

      Alright. Seth, same thing as before. Tell us who you are and, uh, we're gonna start your timer.

  27. Seth Stewart, American Fork1:23:13

      Alright. Thank you very much. Yeah. I'm Seth Stewart from American Fork, representing myself. Um, generative AI is actually a great boon for grassroots candidates given the homogenization of Utah elections and primaries and popular votes. Campaign spending and name recognition through flashy ads and mailers is the name of the game. And if the public fears that the candidate's message or character is inauthentic, we should let them make that decision for themselves rather than being led to that conclusion by the government at the candidate's own expense. Imagine, please, the cost to a grassroots campaign where you're considering whether to have in big, ugly letters. This disclosure saying that this, some material in this, uh, ad was AI generated as opposed to paying for a, a graphic designer, an artist out of your own pocket, out of your own expense. Um, I have seen estimates for graphic design and artistic services for campaigns. They're not cheap. Mm-hmm. We're talking hundreds to thousands of dollars in many instances just for the design stage before it even goes to printing. This is a piggy bank breaking, uh, affair for candidates who are very eligible and worthwhile challengers to the incumbents. There's no in inherent intent to deceive when a candidate uses generated images to convey their message any more than there is intent to deceive. When an artist is commissioned to create illustrations, artwork, or logos for a campaign, there are already laws against defamation, misrepresentation and impersonation. Should candidates not be allowed to Photoshop their images, are you gonna push back against algorithmically optimized campaign promises and slogans with the same fervor? If recycled branding is a concern, the registered and qualified political party system with its endorsements being displayed on government ballots at taxpayer expense is already an issue. Political parties by default, recycle branding, which already creates a lookalike effect. Many voters vote for a candidate on grounds that they're Republicans or Democrats should, we forbid that too, as to its practical effect like the previous bill. This is yet another financial and reputational barrier to office. For those who are not wealthy or well connected on all these grounds,

  28. Committee chair (presiding)1:25:16

      I urge you to oppose this bill. Thank you. Alright, Thank you. Alright, we're gonna close the public comment and we'll bring, bring this back to the committee for questions or a motion. We have a question or motion for, uh, Representative Romero? Go ahead.

  29. Rep. Angela Romero1:25:40

      Thank you Mr. Chair. I would motion to hold to give the, um, good representative time to work out, um, some language with, um, our colleagues on the other side of the, the DAAs Thank you.

  30. Committee chair (presiding)1:25:57

      The sponsor for the bill. Do you have a

  31. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:26:00

      No, I'm happy to continue to have the conversation. I think it's a, this has been a robust conversation and, and I'm happy to continue.

  32. Committee chair (presiding)1:26:08

      Alright, thank you. And I've got, we got some questions. Do, do you still wanna speak to this? Alright, go ahead Representative Cutler.

  33. Rep. Paul A. Cutler1:26:16

      So I, I I think the intent here is, is very good and I, after having this conversation, I can see some really bandages. So I see two issues that I'd like to see resolved. Number one, that a candidate knowingly uses ai. I think the case of if you hire a graphic designer, you're not gonna know what they do. A good, a good graphic designer might tell you, but if you hire someone over the internet Yeah. Uh, to, to design a logo for you, very inexpensive like, like many folks do, especially if they're don't have many resources or they're just starting a campaign, they might go and just buy something over the internet. Right. So I think that intent And then, uh, the other issue, if, if we could figure out some language around intent to, uh, deceive or intent to, maybe Representative Fiefia has a better approach, that we're not concerned about someone just generating their own unique logo with ai. Mm-hmm. It's, uh, an intent to copy or to replicate or to deceive. We could, we could work on Yeah. I think what your intent is. Yeah. No, thank You for that tho. Those are the two issues.

  34. Unknown speaker1:27:32speaker not certain

      I see. Okay. Thank You. Can I written them down? And then,

  35. Rep. Doug Fiefia1:27:35speaker not certain

      Uh, representative, uh, I agree with those points and, and just thank you for working on this. I think this is a tough issue. Anytime AI is involved in a bill, welcome to the difficulty around the conversation. So I appreciate you working on a, on a hard kind of topic, but I think we've found some solutions that can make this bill better.

  36. Rep. Paul A. Cutler1:27:55speaker not certain

      Yeah. So thank you. Yes. Alright. But I, I would love to create a lot of political ads for all of you guys with AI just saying A, a a anything from the sponsor you wanna

  37. Committee chair (presiding)1:28:11

      add to this conversation?

  38. Rep. Rosalba Dominguez1:28:13

      No, I think this is great. I think this has been wonderful, so I appreciate it. Right.

  39. Committee chair (presiding)1:28:16

      And to the sponsor, the, alright then the motion before is to, is to hold HB 5 0 4 for advertising modifications. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, perfect. We will hold this bill for you.