The Deepfake Threat to the 2024 US Presidential Election

[Nevilledog]

https://gnet-research.org/2024/03/27/the-deepfake-threat-to-the-2024-us-presidential-election/


Introduction

As the 2024 US election campaign ramps up, artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes are already having a corrosive effect on the democratic process. In the New Hampshire Democratic primary, an artificially generated robocall purported to represent President Biden telling his voters not to participate in the primary. “Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again,” the faux Biden declared. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”

The call was linked to an operative working for Biden’s rival candidate, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips. He claimed to have created the call not for political purposes but to raise awareness of the dangers of AI in politics. “This is a way for me to make a difference, and I have,” he declared. On this last score, at least, he is right: artificial intelligence has arrived, and its impact on politics and elections is likely to begin immediately. Perhaps even more concerningly, though, these technologies will also be eagerly adopted by extremists across the ideological spectrum, who will look to advance their radicalisation and recruitment efforts at greater speeds and scale. This GNET Insight looks at the rising role of AI in both mainstream politics and its violent extremes before summarising possible countermeasures to this new threat.

A Growing Catalogue of AI in Politics

Of course, the New Hampshire robocall was far from the first time political actors or extremists have used deepfakes and artificial intelligence to advance their ideologies and recruit newcomers. The Islamic State, for instance, has repeatedly experimented with AI-generated propaganda. Far-right extremists have also employed AI to advance their visual propaganda efforts, for instance, paradoxically using this new technology to recreate content celebrating Nazi Germany during World War II, overlaid with modern aesthetics. The incident in New Hampshire is also not the first time these technologies have been used to disrupt elections. Indonesia and Slovakia have already witnessed the widespread use of artificial intelligence and deepfake content to rig election outcomes, largely by portraying opposition candidates as nefarious and corrupt.

Given the increasingly normalised use of these technologies, terrorists and violent extremists are quickly adjusting and incorporating them into their regular propaganda techniques. In an article published for the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in the Hague, we outlined the three core areas where far-right extremists have benefited from the technology, namely through the incitement of violence, the spread of new ideological ammunition, and the recruitment of new radical individuals. Each of these end-goals was sought by ‘far-right’ actors who circulated a video purporting to show London mayor Sadiq Khan announcing the cancellation of annual Armistice Day commemorations in favour of a pro-Palestine march after October 7. On 4chan, meanwhile, far-right networks spread guides on using AI for generating new anti-Semitic propaganda. There are also possible tactical benefits, particularly as the technology improves, potentially allowing extremists to alter the success or failure of particularly violent incidents or accelerate the course of violent action as it happens. Generative AI represents a new precipice in communications technology, which extremists will surely eagerly exploit.

*snip*

[underpants]

1. I've been worried about the use of AI in this election for a while

The craphole that is now Twitter (and Facebook) could be very useful to spread a fake picture. “For You” on Twitter, at least mine, is a mess with BS repetition. The conspiracies on the Key Bridge were almost instant, extremely stupid, and massively posted and reposted. Today they think they have a GOTCHA because Jon Stewart made a lot of money when he sold his NYC penthouse apartment. As many are pointing out, he sold it, someone paid for it, he didn’t overvalue it on loans.