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Arizona Secretary of State uses deepfake to raise awareness on AI-generated misinformation - Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes showcased a deepfake of himself on 'Meet the Press', warning voters about the dangers of AI-generated misinformation ahead of the 2024 election. President Joe Biden also addressed the need for responsible AI innovation amidst growing concerns about false information spread by AI systems. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes used a deepfake of himself to warn voters about the potential for AI-generated misinformation in the lead-up to the 2024 election. The video was showcased on "Meet the Press" on May 26, 2024, and featured an AI-generated version of Fontes explaining the dangers of deepfakes and fabricated content. The deepfake emphasized that it was an impersonation created with Fontes' consent to emphasize the realistic and misleading nature of such technologies. Fontes likened the initiative to a military exercise, preparing election officials and the public to recognize and counter misinformation. In addition to his efforts, President Joe Biden also commented on AI this week, calling for responsible and trustworthy innovation from AI companies. This comes amidst broader concerns about...

Arizona Secretary of State uses deepfake to raise awareness on AI-generated misinformation - Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes showcased a deepfake of himself on 'Meet the Press', warning voters about the dangers of AI-generated misinformation ahead of the 2024 election. President Joe Biden also addressed the need for responsible AI innovation amidst growing concerns about false information spread by AI systems. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes used a deepfake of himself to warn voters about the potential for AI-generated misinformation in the lead-up to the 2024 election. The video was showcased on "Meet the Press" on May 26, 2024, and featured an AI-generated version of Fontes explaining the dangers of deepfakes and fabricated content. The deepfake emphasized that it was an impersonation created with Fontes' consent to emphasize the realistic and misleading nature of such technologies. Fontes likened the initiative to a military exercise, preparing election officials and the public to recognize and counter misinformation. In addition to his efforts, President Joe Biden also commented on AI this week, calling for responsible and trustworthy innovation from AI companies. This comes amidst broader concerns about...

The more lifelike AI deepfakes and voice cloning become, the less we will trust the digitally mediated world. What will this do to society? Will we eventually stop consuming digital content as it’s impossible to know whether any of it is true? Will we then privilege face to face more? What does all of this do to our faith in political systems? This must be a serious topic in schools today. It’s our job to talk about this.

More than 4 billion people voting this year around the world... including here in the United States, and at home in Europe for the European Parliamen. Are OpenAI and other artificial intelligence companies prepared? What about social media companies, themselves delving into AI? What about governments and regulators, are they prepared?  Anna Makanju, Vice President of Global Affairs at OpenAI, said this is "really unprecedented," and OpenAI is "very cognizant of that." In a long on stage interview with Cat Zakrzewski at The Washington Post’s Futurist Summit a few weeks back, Anna said they are working to "ensure that our tools are not used to deceive people and to mislead people." She mentioned the ‘Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections’ signed at the Munich Security Conference "we're going to collaborate with social media companies and other companies that [...] generate AI content" and "for us, we really focus on things like transparency." Anna, who described by Ambassador Michael McFaul at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies as the “de facto the foreign minister of one of the most important companies in the world,” continued: "These Munich Accords were meant to [...] establish all of the channels and industry standards and alignment across the industry of how we deal with this. [...] Really figuring out, like, the infrastructure for the entire ecosystem for how this should work, we have quite a few touch points now. But of course, it is continuing, and it should evolve as we understand how these tools are going to be actually used. But I think in general, one issue that we have is that we don't really have complete alignment on how each of us does this and what is actually the standard that we should all follow, and that's one of the biggest things that we're working on, is creating that alignment." "At the end of the day, this is something that is, you know, in the interest of all these companies," Anna added.

Is anyone surprised that errors would be common in an AI service, even if Elon Musk is offering it? “The artificial-intelligence model’s limitations were on display in the hours after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday, when it served up some erroneous headlines based on its read of content on X.” “One headline wrongly said Vice President Kamala Harris was shot. The error seemed to stem from sarcastic references some X users made to a previous, unrelated incident where President Biden had mixed up Trump’s name with Harris.” Another Grok news summary named a purported shooter and falsely claimed the man was a member of antifa, a loose network of people on the far left. Musk often touts the benefit of Grok’s AI powers to automate writing headlines and news summaries based on posts from hundreds of millions of users. He has claimed that traditional news outlets are slow and unreliable, and has spent months encouraging X users to get in the habit of checking Grok for news updates. “What we’re doing on the X platform is, we are aggregating. We’re using AI to sum up the aggregated input from millions of users,” Musk said at an ad industry gathering in June. “I think this is really going to be the new model of news.” A former Facebook public-policy director said: “There’s a long way to go. At the end of the day when it comes to breaking news like the shooting, you will always need humans to help provide context when facts are not yet known.” Although journalists also can also make mistakes, some of Grok’s missteps went beyond the confusion that can occur in such moments. One Grok headline read: “Actor ‘Home Alone 2’ Shot at Trump Rally?” Trump did make a cameo in the 1992 movie “Home Alone 2,” which some X users referenced. Grok didn’t clarify that the “actor” in question was Trump. “Grok is far from the first generative AI tool to struggle with accuracy.” “Google in May said it was making fixes after an AI-powered feature produced some odd results, such as recommending using glue to keep cheese sticking to pizza.” “It isn’t the first time Grok has struggled in summarizing news events. After the presidential debate in June,” #Grokgenerated a “headline saying: Newsom Triumphs in Recent Debate.” Disinformation is always bad, but the worst time is during a crisis, particularly when that crisis involves the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate. Even without the misinformation from Grok, Fast Company reports that “Trump assassination conspiracy posts have been viewed more than 215 million times on X.” AI-based Grok exacerbates this problem. #technology #innovation #startups #hype #ethics #AI #twitter #artificialintelligence https://lnkd.in/ghQsTqrc

🚨 On May 23, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed a USD 6 million penalty on a political adviser for using illegal robocalls with deepfake generative AI voice messages in a political campaign. This case highlights that even in the absence of explicit deepfake and AI regulations, authorities can still take decisive action against such misconduct. Curious about the implications of this case? Check out our latest article that delves into the key takeaways from this US case and explores the parallels and relevant provisions in the European Union’s AI Act. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/djDuYTBJ #AI #Deepfake #Regulation #FCC #EUAIAct #EthicalAI #Policy #Technology #Innovation

🔍 AI and the Erosion of Truth in the 2024 Election: A Tumultuous Landscape In the thick of a pivotal election year, the emergence of AI-generated content has intensified debates surrounding the authenticity of information, casting shadows over the integrity of democratic processes. Politicians globally are deflecting accusations and purported evidence of misconduct by labeling them as products of AI, thus exploiting the ambiguous nature of AI's influence to sow doubt and evade accountability. This strategic dismissal of potentially incriminating evidence as AI fabrications undermines the fabric of factual discourse, blurring the lines between reality and fabrication. As AI technology continues to advance, the ability to distinguish between genuine and AI-generated content becomes increasingly challenging, heightening the risk of misinformation. This evolving landscape demands a concerted effort to develop mechanisms for verifying the authenticity of information, ensuring that the public discourse remains anchored in truth. The implications of unchecked AI-generated misinformation extend beyond politics, threatening to undermine public trust and the foundational principles of informed decision-making. 🔗 Dive deeper into the discussion on AI's impact on truth and democracy. Join the conversation and explore the challenges and solutions in safeguarding the integrity of our informational ecosystem.

I get asked a lot — in both my professional and personal life — about how #artificialintelligence is going to affect this year's global election cycle. And boy, do I have thoughts about this. Luckily, POLITICO gave me a chance to put some of those thoughts down on (virtual) paper. Today, we're publishing the first of a 3-part series on AI, #disinformation & #elections, called "Bots and Ballots." You can read it all here https://lnkd.in/e6ssREqR The first story is my effort to articulate what I have been thinking about for a while. Yes, AI is new, for many. Yes, AI *may* pose a risk to this year's elections. But, so far, there is no evidence of actual voter harm (as in: AI leading to skewed voter outcomes). Why is that? Buy me a beer and I'll give you the long version. But, in short, people's voter habits are entrenched; disinformation doesn't need AI to be shared widely; the most harmful lies still come from (real) politicians. https://lnkd.in/e6ssREqR In the second story, I wanted to show, not tell, what the tech actually does. There's a "can you spot the deepfake?" quiz. There's my voice being cloned (badly, imo). There's a bizarre AI-powered debate between a Biden bot vs a Trump bot (about Disney characters, don't ask). Have a look https://lnkd.in/e8Vr7SYn The third story is all about data: how people think about AI, how they think about AI and, more importantly, how there's a divide between perceived AI harm on elections and actual evidence. https://lnkd.in/eV8cF54T The next chapter drops on May 7. This project wouldn't have happened w/o Kelsey L. Hayes, Giulia Poloni, Lucia Mackenzie, Emma Krstic and her team. Kudos.

A new survey finds most Americans believe AI abuses will affect the 2024 election. 73% of Americans believe it is “very” or “somewhat” likely AI will be used to manipulate social media to influence the outcome of the presidential election – for example, by generating information from fake accounts or bots or distorting people’s impressions of the campaign. 70% say it is likely the election will be affected by the use of AI to generate fake information, video and audio material. 62% say the election is likely to be affected by the targeted use of AI to convince some voters not to vote. In all, 78% say at least one of these abuses of AI will affect the presidential election outcome. More than half think all three abuses are at least somewhat likely to occur.

The final chapter of my three-part POLITICO series 'Bots and Ballots' just dropped. And for these final four stories, I focused on the everyday inner workings of how #artificialintelligence affects elections worldwide. The first story is all about the cottage industry of activists, political consultants and private companies seeking to use AI to find an edge — or stop harms — in the multitude of elections in 2024. So far, many of these offerings are more PR glitz, than actually useful. https://lnkd.in/eDFBkNPH The next highlights the regulators, campaigners and fact-checkers across the so-called Global Majority, or developing and middle-income countries, that are arguably at the coal face of how AI is impacting elections. What they are facing is a quickly advancing technology with little, if any, technical expertise and regulatory buy-in to cope. https://lnkd.in/eu_cwGxk The third story in this chapter is all about Big Tech's lobbying pitch. With my colleague Hanne Cokelaere, we took all the public statements from nine of the West's biggest AI firms and crunched the data to figure out what, exactly, they were telling the world about what they were up to. https://lnkd.in/egqCwJ-F The final article is more personal. After 9 stories — and reporting trips from Chișinău to Seattle — I reflect on what exactly are the issues linked to AI and #disinformation tied to this year's motherlode of an election cycle. My final take: "Yes, AI-fueled disinformation is upon us. But no, it’s not an existential threat, and it must be viewed as part of a wider world of ‘old-school’ campaigning and, in some cases, foreign interference and cyberattacks. AI is an agnostic tool, to be wielded for good or ill. "Will that change in the years to come? Potentially. But for this year’s election cycle, your best bet is to remain vigilant, without getting caught up in the hype-train that artificial intelligence has become." https://lnkd.in/eQsV4EmR