Between manipulated images showing an arrest of Donald Trump and fake videos in which Joe Biden announces a general mobilization, the race for the White House in 2024 is threatened by a flood of disinformation and is considered the first American election to be held marked by the seal of artificial intelligence.
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Advocates on both sides are turning to AI-powered tools, which many experts see as a double-edged sword.
Campaign teams use this technology to increase their effectiveness in everything from analyzing election data to writing fundraising emails.
However, tools can quickly clone a political figure’s voice, create fake videos, and invent false stories that could leave voters struggling to distinguish truth from falsehood or destroy confidence in the electoral process.
A video released in June by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team purports to show former President Donald Trump hugging Anthony Fauci, the former White House adviser on Covid-19. However, AFP journalists were able to determine that AI-generated images were used in the video.
“Far to the West”
AI-generated images also showed a false arrest of Donald Trump by police officers in New York. In an equally misleading video, we saw Joe Biden order a general mobilization to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia.
“Generative AI threatens to amplify online disinformation campaigns,” writes the NGO Freedom House in a recent report, warning that the technology is already being used to damage reputations in the United States.
“Disinformation providers use AI-generated images, audio and text, making the truth easier to distort and harder to uncover.”
According to a survey released in September by media outlet Axios and Morning Consult, an economic research firm, more than 50% of Americans expect falsehoods produced by AI to have an impact on the 2024 presidential election.
According to the same survey, about a third of Americans said AI made them less confident in the results.
In a hyperpolarized political environment, some fear such sentiments will fuel public anger over the electoral process, such as when Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, based on false claims that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election have .
“Revolutionary”
“Thanks to simple and inexpensive (AI) models, we will be faced with a ‘Wild West’ of election claims and counter-claims, with limited ability to distinguish facts from falsehoods and uncertainties about their influence on the election,” says Darrell Westlich Brookings think tank.
At the same time, rapid advances in AI are making it a “revolutionary” resource for understanding voters and trends, emphasizes Junction AI’s Vance Reavie.
Teams used to rely on highly paid consultants to develop strategies and spend hours writing speeches, but artificial intelligence makes it possible to complete these tasks at lightning speed, he tells AFP.
Authorities are rushing to put security measures in place, and American states like Minnesota are passing laws to make “deep fakes” aimed at denigrating candidates a crime.
On Monday, Joe Biden signed an executive order regulating the use of AI.
“Deep fakes use audio and video data generated by AI to denigrate reputations (…), spread false news and commit fraud,” said the American president.
The 80-year-old Democrat mentioned that he saw a video of himself made from scratch using AI. “I was wondering when I could have said that?”