This report analyses the various approaches being pursued to address the risks associated with 'synthetic' content – material produced by generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. As more people use generative AI to create synthetic content, civil society, media, and lawmakers are paying greater attention to some of the risks—such as disinformation, fraud, and abuse. 

The report is based on an extensive survey of existing technical and policy literature, recently-proposed and/or enacted legislation, and emerging regulatory guidance and rulemaking. 

Providing an overview of some of the risks synthetic content raises, the report explores the various approaches policymakers in the U.S. are taking to address these risks, and highlights some of these approaches’ limitations, focusing on potential tradeoffs with privacy and security. 

It highlights the following themes:

• Synthetic content can raise a number of risks, including risks related to political disinformation and misinformation, fraud, and non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
• Policymakers and others are exploring various technical, organizational, and legal approaches to addressing synthetic content’s risks, such as requiring authentication techniques and placing limitations on certain uses of synthetic content.
• Current approaches to regulating synthetic content may face a number of limitations and tradeoffs, including with privacy and security, and policymakers should evaluate the potential implications of these approaches.