If you are among those who feared a future in which the use of generative artificial intelligences will make it almost impossible to distinguish the real from the fake, especially during elections, you will be happy to know that that future is already here. It is to the point that in the United States and the United Kingdom, currently under electoral campaign for future elections political elections, they are asking themselves the problem of how to stem the situation, to ensure that it does not get out of hand as happened in India. In short, how can we prevent the use of artificial intelligence from influencing electoral results?
The Indian situation is particularly significant in this sense. As the election approaches, they are proliferating false informationbuilt using artificial intelligence, so much so as to make it impossible for the electoral body to distinguish what is true from what is false.
According to a BBC report, Muralikrishnan Chinnadurai, a fact-checker from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, raised the alarm about the malicious use of tools such as ChatGPT by OpenAI and Copilot by Microsoft. “This is an emotionally charged issue in our state, and with elections around the corner, misinformation could proliferate.” Chinnadurai told the BBC.
Too accessible?
The accessibility of these tools has alarmed many experts. India’s Election Commissioner, SY Qureshi, raised concerns about social media, saying, “Rumour has always been a part of electoral debates. But in the age of social media, it can spread like petrol and potentially set fire to nation.”
In reality, the use of AI to spread false information is nothing new. Already during the first months of the invasion of Ukraine, in Russia Fake videos of Volodymyr Zelenskyy announcing the surrender were created to deceive civilians. It wasn’t very successful at the time, but in the meantime generative AIs have been improved and have stolen more data, so much so that the progress in their results is evident. Think for example of George Carlin’s fake show or upcoming movies made using only AI.
It is not absurd to think that similar problems could also affect US and UK elections, creating a huge issue for democracy.
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