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News: Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) are urging four federal agencies to address potential election-integrity threats posed by artificial intelligence, including the spreading of inaccurate or biased information.

In a new letter, the bipartisan duo called for “the development and deployment of appropriate monitoring and mitigation capabilities” and pushed for deeper “engagement with major AI companies” to get a better grasp on safety, testing and identifying bias.

Their letter, which was sent on Tuesday, went to the Justice and Homeland Security departments, along with the Federal Election Commission and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

It followed a May letter from the two House members to major AI companies.

After the 2016 election, lawmakers have periodically highlighted worries about election falsehoods going viral. Tech platforms made some voluntary changes in response to those concerns.

Following the Biden administration’s use of CISA to target election misinformation, however, Republicans have largely argued the federal government mustn’t interfere with or seek to take down online political content.

In addition to their letter to the federal agencies, Lawler’s office also shared responses the lawmakers got from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and Perplexity.

The answers detail strategies for pushing users to reliable information, maintaining political neutrality and handling issues like fake images.

In their message to the agencies, Lawler and Gottheimer wrote the firms “made clear that, while industry can improve transparency and curb certain abuses, the scale and speed of AI-driven information demands a more coordinated public response.”