Peacebuilders, civil society, technology companies and governments should work together to check misuse of technology. Publication Type: Analysis and Commentary This year will be one of the most consequential in recent memory, as more than 50 elections will take place in countries across the world covering nearly 2 billion people. With the role of technology increasing in a multitude of sectors, communications technology (i.e., social media platforms and messaging apps) and artificial intelligence (AI) are poised to have varying levels of impact on the elections in 2024. Without strong collaboration and planning between peacebuilders, civil society, technology companies and governments, the fallout from unmanaged technology use around the elections will be far reaching, from an increasing inability to discern fact from fiction to distrust in democratic political processes. Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Lai Ching-te’s campaign was the target of an audio deepfake in Taiwan. Taiwanese fact checkers say they are ready to counter Beijing’s meddling in the January 13 elections.(An Rong Xu/The New York Times) The Role of AI AI’s development and use will continue to consume global governance discussions. While those conversations are taking shape, political candidates are already applying the technology to electoral campaigning. From Pakistan to the United States, AI is serving as a resource for candidates to spread their message more easily. Political campaigns have used AI to robocall voters, draft campaign messages and create automated messages. Over the course of 2024, voters may find themselves interacting with AI as companies are able to build software to hold conversations with voters and answer questions about a candidate. In countries with diverse populations who speak different languages, politicians are using AI to replicate their voices in a variety of languages for outreach. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is employing AI to communicate in Hindi […]
Click here to visit source. Disinformation Casts a Shadow Over Global Elections