AI & The Presidential Race: Biden, Trump, DeSantis Aren't Just Battling Each Other

Investors in artificial intelligence (AI) have scored solid returns since the 2020 presidential election thanks to the tech's rapid advancement. However, AI has also spawned a deluge of online fake news.

The Issue: For the 2024 presidential election, voters will have to try harder than ever before to discern what’s real and what’s not. Nominees in the contest will not only have to battle each other, but likely defend themselves against fake news generated by AI.

With the youngest generations of voters preferring to absorb news on social media, AI may become an even bigger problem, with realistic-looking misinformation proliferating across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

It may sound like an old issue. After all, former president Donald Trump has often complained about fake news, fake polls and election interference for at least a decade — most of which is merely just news that he doesn’t like. But nowadays, the threat of fake news, fake images and fake videos has become an everyday reality.

AI's widespread availability and simplicity empower anyone with an internet connection to generate and disseminate disinformation more easily, quickly, and inexpensively, according to the Wall Street Journal

Teddy Goff, who was a digital director for former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, says AI won't just "create brand-new realms or types of disinformation that we’ve never before imagined, but it’s going to make it easier and faster and cheaper to produce.”

"The consequences of that are going to be pretty profound," he added.

The Dangers Of AI During An Election: Trump recently posted an AI generated video to Truth Social that mocked Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement on Twitter.

The video included fake accounts belonging to George Soros, Adolph Hitler, the devil and others as "speakers."

While noticeably fake, other images and videos being shared on social media are much more difficult to identify as misinformation.

A video, created by the Republican National Committee that was set following President Joe Biden’s potential re-election, shows China invading Taiwan and migrants surging over the U.S.-Mexico border.

A series of images depicting Trump being chased down by the authorities has also made its way around the internet recently, according to the outlet. Although viewers may know the images are fake, their “realness” can instill fear.

While both Democratic and Republican consultants intend to harness AI to save time, draft speeches, create emails and organize voter registration lists, online watchdogs warn the technology can also be used to misinform voters by sending them to the wrong polling station or by spreading other misinformation intended to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming elections, according to the publication.

Some of the onus of stopping the spread of disinformation — by properly labelling fake information circulating on the web — will fall on social media companies, which will have to continue finding new, more aggressive ways to identify fake news. Those platforms also have to balance their content restrictions with the idea of allowing free political debate.

“It’s quite obvious that users should not be subjected to random disinformation without some knowledge of who did it and where it came from,” said former CEO of Google and head of a congressionally appointed commission on AI, Eric Schmidt, according to the outlet.

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay