THE NEXT FRONTIER — Democracy watchdogs have identified a new potential threat to election integrity: artificial intelligence. California Common Cause, the nonprofit good-government organization, today launches a new venture aimed at combating the threats that AI, disinformation and deepfakes pose to democracy. The California Institute for Technology and Democracy, or CITED, deploys exactly one year from the 2024 general election, and comes as state and federal lawmakers wrestle with the rapidly-evolving tools. President Joe Biden, who himself has been the subject of AI-generated misinformation, issued an executive order on the technology last week. But advocates, frustrated by Congress’ lack of action, are turning to the states for regulation, and hoping California will take the lead. Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, said the organization started looking at AI in early 2023 when new technologies were making “quantum leaps” — with few boundaries. “It was clear that no one in the policy sector or the government sector had a robust agenda for solving these problems,” he said. CITED intends to help California lawmakers fill the void by offering analysis and guidance from a group of political and policy experts. The board of directors includes Mehta Stein; Common Cause chair Mindy Romero, who is also the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC; former Republican state legislator and founding director of Cal Poly’s Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy Sam Blakeslee; Reset.Tech Senior Policy Counsel Yosef Getachew; Cybersecurity CEO and Founder Laura Mather; and veteran campaign strategist Bill Wong. The advisory council also includes experts who have worked at companies including Amazon, Twitter and Google. PELOSI ATTACK TRIAL — The jury and the court calendar are set for California’s preeminent political trial of the year — and the case could be headed for a quick verdict. Defendant David Wayne DePape, who ditched his orange jail jumpsuit for a blue sweater and gray trousers, sat in U.S. District Court on Monday to face federal charges that he assaulted Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer and plotted to kidnap the former speaker in October 2022. DePape’s defense team and federal prosecutors spent the bulk of the day winnowing down a pool of more than 90 potential jurors to select the 12 people who will ultimately decide his fate. Public defenders Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang spent much of their time grilling potential jurors about whether they can keep an open mind, especially those who indicated on a pre-trial questionnaire that they hold favorable views of Pelosi or are sympathetic to Paul Pelosi after the assault. DePape’s attorneys sought — without success — to move the case to Eureka, arguing he won’t get a fair trial in a city where Pelosi is overwhelmingly popular. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley stressed to jurors that the prosecution must prove DePape’s intent to kidnap Pelosi and interfere with her official duties. To that end, Chuang asked many potential jurors if police body camera footage of the assault could unduly influence their perspective. “It is disturbing, and a lot of people will be bothered by it,” she said. The court settled on the final jury pool without much fanfare. Opening arguments start Thursday, and the judge said she anticipates the case could be in the jury’s hands by the following Wednesday. | 
