As social media guardrails fade and AI deepfakes go mainstream, experts warn of impact on elections

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Generative artificial intelligence tools have made it far cheaper and easier to spread the kind of misinformation that can mislead voters and potentially influence elections. And social media companies that once invested heavily in correcting the record have shifted their priorities. Fabricated images, videos, and audio clips known as deepfakes have started making their way into experimental presidential campaign ads. More sinister versions could easily spread without labels and fool people days before an election, said Oren Etzioni, an artificial intelligence expert and professor emeritus at the University of Washington. “You could see a political candidate like President Biden being rushed to a hospital,” he said. “You could see a candidate saying things that he or she never actually said." A handful of states have passed laws requiring deepfakes to be labeled or banning those that misrepresent candidates. However, it remains to be seen whether social media companies will be able to consistently catch violators. In the run-up to 2024, X, Meta, and YouTube have together removed 17 policies that protected against hate and misinformation. In June, YouTube announced that while it would still regulate content that misleads about current or upcoming elections, it would stop removing content that falsely claims the 2020 election or other previous U.S. elections were marred by “widespread fraud, errors, or glitches.” The platform said the policy was an attempt to protect the ability to “openly debate political ideas, even those that are controversial or based on disproven assumptions.” X, Meta, and YouTube also have laid off thousands of employees and contractors since 2020, some of whom have included content moderators. Election officials have spent the years since 2020 preparing for the expected resurgence of election denial narratives. In Minnesota, a new law will protect election workers from threats and harassment, bar people from knowingly distributing misinformation ahead of elections, and criminalize people who non-consensually share deepfake images to hurt a political candidate or influence an election. “This is an uphill battle, but we have to be proactive,” said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “Misinformation is one of the biggest threats to American democracy we see today.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.