A California bill would ban deepfakes that could swing the election | Opinion
Increasingly, AI and political deepfakes are impacting elections around the world. In 2022, Russian hackers created an AI-manipulated video showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordering his forces to surrender. In Taiwan in 2023, fake audio was created and disseminated of a presidential candidate endorsing his opponents, which he never did.
In Northern Ireland in 2022, an AI-generated video went viral depicting Cara Hunter, a candidate for the Northern Ireland Assembly, having explicit sex; Hunter prevailed in her race but later called it “the most horrific and stressful time of my entire life.”
AI-powered disinformation is not new. And we can expect more — and much worse — as our general 2024 election heats up.