Written by Sadie Buggle | Cronkite News
PHOENIX — In the rapidly evolving campaign environment of the upcoming presidential election, artificial intelligence is already actively engaged at scale, revolutionizing campaign strategy and communications.
From AI-generated election ads to faster response times, these technological advances could have a major impact on how candidates engage with voters, election officials say.
Generative AI is already being used by candidates and politicians to help maximize their reach to voters and send out statements and fundraising emails in record time.
This technology provides political parties, candidates, and even the public with cheap and fast tools to develop political messages and change the dynamics of political communication, for better or worse.
Voters can now rely on new and advanced technology to make it easier for individuals to create nearly undetectable manipulated media that can simulate a candidate's voice or likeness without explicitly stating that the content is fabricated. Because of this, I am looking at the negative side.
“What's particularly troubling is that technology has become easier to use over the past year,” said Lesa Hill, executive director of the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. That's true.'' , Cronkite News is published. “You can clone audio, animate photos, create deepfakes without investing a lot of money. Previously, people who knew what they were doing It was necessary. Now even beginners can do it. It's getting harder and harder to tell what's real and what's fake.”
With the race so close and heated in the battleground state of Arizona, creating a convincing false narrative or sharing fabricated audio or video about a candidate can be all it takes to turn the tide. may be sufficient.
“It's easy to make, but difficult to detect. People may already have the mindset to believe what they see,” Hill said. “Even if you weren't paying that much attention, if you see it coming through your feed on social media and it confirms what you've been thinking about that politician… It might help reaffirm that you are there.”
Officials say current laws regarding digitally manipulated content make it a challenge to control misinformation during elections. Campaign speech is largely protected by the First Amendment, and defamation lawsuits in political campaigns are rare and almost never successful.
In light of these recent technological advances, state and federal legislatures across the country are trying to address the growing problem, with officials from both major political parties working to introduce legislation to combat AI misinformation.
Changes in regulations regarding artificial intelligence
The Arizona Legislature wants to clear the way for candidates to take legal action against the growing threat of deepfakes in election campaigns. House Bill 2394, sponsored by state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, aims to address the rise of digitally manipulated media designed to mislead voters.
The bill, which is being considered in committee, would, if passed, give candidates for public office or Arizona residents the right to take legal action against digital impersonation if they can prove that the content was published without their consent. It stipulates that. and that it was created for the purpose of deception.
“Artificially generated technologies have a very legitimate role to play in our public life,” Kolodin told the House of Commons Elections Committee on January 24. “This is a bill that, in my opinion, is the most thoughtful and respectful attempt to figure out what to do about this new technology and political and electoral landscape, while at the same time not infringing on the First Statute in any way.” I believe that.” Revised. “
Notably, the bill does not authorize the removal of deepfakes from the internet, but rather helps candidates prove false information to voters with the help of courts. Expedited processing is possible under certain conditions, such as an upcoming election within 180 days or if the content contains explicit or harmful content.
Kolodin designed HB 2394 as a quick way for candidates to combat deceptive content and establish credibility as elections approach.
“The rush part is that the court is saying, 'This is the best decision we could make because we had very little time to investigate this.'” there is. “A week is an eternity in politics, especially in swing states,” Kolodin said.
Combating AI misinformation through election security training
As legislation moves forward, elected officials are looking for new ways to address the issue before election season gets into full swing. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes looked to leveraging the AI tools themselves to detect AI-generated content and mitigate the problem.
Fontes' office is hosting multiple training sessions aimed at covering important aspects of election security, such as verification testing and personal authentication of voice communications. These exercises included representatives from all 15 Arizona counties, as well as election officials, emergency management staff, law enforcement, and county supervisors.
Officials worked with Mr. Fontes to create manipulated content specifically designed to train election officials on how to identify and respond to deepfakes.
“We created a synthetic version of Director Adrian Fontes, and many people didn't realize at first that it wasn't the real Adrian Fontes,” said Fontes' office's chief information security officer. said Michael Moore. “It was a recycled video of his, not a legitimate video. And the voice clones these days are incredibly impressive.”
The state plans to host more such training sessions as the election approaches, emphasizing the importance of preparedness in the face of evolving technological threats to fair elections.
“The tools are much more sophisticated now, and you can create tools that are basically indistinguishable and perfectly lifelike,” Moore said. “So we wanted people to understand that this is the state of technology today. We are going to see this and we need to be prepared for this. be.”
