Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King is asking top U.S. intelligence officials to issue a public warning about any known attempts by foreign entities to influence the oucome of a U.S. election.
At a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, King told the heads of multiple agencies, including the FBI and CIA, that they should inform the public when they know a foreign group is trying to exert such influence.
King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told the agency heads that he's worried about new technologies, including new video editing technologies such as what's known as "deep fake."
“That’s when they use technology to create, essentially, a false reality - an apparent speech by a candidate where different words are coming out of their mouth than they actually said,” King said.
Officials told King that they will try to inform the public in these cases. But FBI Director Christopher Wray said that they first have to be sure about the accuracy of the intelligence.
“I just want to be sure our policies keep pace with the magnitude and the accelerated nature of the threat," King said. "Well, we clearly need to be - to your point about agility - we clearly need to adapt as the technology adapts,” Wray replied.
