Artificial intelligence 'threatens' US elections

AI experts and tech-savvy political scientists are sounding the alarm about the unpredictable state of generative AI tools like ChatGPT ahead of the 2024 US presidential election.

"America is not prepared for that"

Fox News on May 15 quoted Mr. AJ Nash, Vice President specializing in AI of the cybersecurity company ZeroFox (headquartered in Minnesota, USA), warning that Americans are not prepared for the prospect of dealing with generative AI. According to him, generative AI can not only quickly compose the content of emails, messages, and video clips to serve the election campaign, but can also be turned into a dangerous tool.

Governments race to find ways to regulate AI tools

“Generative AI offers a significant leap forward in the ability to create audio and video content. When you can do that at scale and distribute it across social media platforms, it has a huge impact,” Nash explained. Among the many possibilities that generative AI like ChatGPT can do, there are many that have a strong impact on elections and voting in a modern country like the United States.

ChatGPT can create a lot of content in a short time

Illustration photo: REUTERS

For example, ChatGPT can create automated voice messages that mimic a candidate’s voice, instructing voters to vote on the wrong day; release audio recordings that appear to be a candidate confessing to a crime or creating racist content; create video clips of a person giving a speech or interview that never actually happened; and computer-generated images based on local news reports that falsely state a candidate has dropped out of the race.

“What if Elon Musk himself called you and convinced you to vote for a particular candidate?” Dr. Oren Etzioni, former CEO and founder of the Allen Institute for AI (headquartered in Washington state, USA), said. “Many people would listen to him. But he didn’t make that call, AI did,” Dr. Etzioni pointed out.

Danger from the enemy

Mr. Petko Stoyanov, global chief technology officer of the cybersecurity company Forcepoint (headquartered in Texas, USA), warned that foreign powers could take advantage of artificial intelligence to try to sabotage the 2024 US election. "What happens if a foreign power, a cybercriminal organization or a state, tries to impersonate someone? What level of influence will it have? Do we have a way to respond?", Mr. Stoyanov raised questions that need to be addressed. According to him, the US will witness a wave of misinformation from foreign sources during the election period.

Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska) also warned of the risk of pro-China organizations using deepfakes (a technology that creates fabricated images and videos to look and sound like real people and events) during the 2024 election season. "They absolutely have this capability, and that's something we need to be really vigilant about," Mr. Ricketts told Fox News in an interview.

Since the beginning of the year, fake news created by AI has caused a storm on social media. These include fake videos of Mr. Biden making offensive statements about transgender people, or fabricated images showing children studying Satanism in libraries. Many people even believed it after photos of former President Donald Trump's police records appeared on the internet, even though he was not photographed for a crime. Other AI-generated images showed Mr. Trump resisting arrest, which were also fake.

Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY) introduced a bill that would require candidates to notify voters about AI-generated advertising images. Clark also co-sponsored a bill that would require anyone creating a composite image to include a watermark to clearly indicate the source of the image. Several states have also introduced their own proposals to address deepfake concerns.

Senator Ricketts said the best thing to do now is to educate Americans about the risks posed by artificial AI. He said the US government could work with universities to improve their ability to detect fake images before the election begins.

ChatGPT Upgraded

According to Mashable, OpenAI (California, USA) has just made an important upgrade to ChatGPT, according to which this tool can now connect and surf the web while operating. This allows ChatGPT to update the latest information and give more authentic answers. Currently, corporations such as Amazon in the US are hiring a team of AI engineers to build and integrate interfaces like ChatGPT, serving exchanges with customers.

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