AI Could Mislead Voters in US 2024 Election, Experts Warn
For years, computer engineers and scientists have warned that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election.
The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed years away.
Not anymore.
AI tools can now create cloned human voices and hyper-realistic images, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread quickly, and target specific audiences.
The implications for the 2024 US presidential campaigns and elections are as large as they are troubling: Generative AI could be used to mislead voters, impersonate candidates and undermine elections on a scale and at a speed not yet seen.
Risks include automated robocall messages, in a candidate's voice, instructing voters to cast ballots on the wrong date. Or audio recordings of a candidate supposedly confessing to a crime or expressing racist views. And many more.
"What if Elon Musk personally calls you and tells you to vote for a certain candidate?" said Oren Etzioni, the former CEO of the Allen Institute for AI. "A lot of people would listen. But it's not him."
AI-generated political disinformation already has gone viral online ahead of the 2024 election, from a doctored video of Biden appearing to give a speech attacking transgender people to AI-generated images of children supposedly learning satanism in libraries.
While some creators acknowledge the use of AI in their content, others may not.
Legislation that would require candidates to label campaign advertisements created with AI has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Yvette Clarke.
Clarke said her greatest fear is that generative AI could be used before the 2024 election to create a video or audio that incites violence and turns Americans against each other.
Other forms of artificial intelligence have been a feature of political campaigning for years, using data and algorithms to automate tasks such as targeting voters on social media or tracking down donors.
