How AI Will Fool Voters In 2024 If We Don’t Do Something Now

Source: ZDNet, David Gewirtz, Senior Contributing Editor
Photo: Douglas Rissing/Getty Images

As generative AI redefines political propaganda, it threatens to amplify misinformation and voter manipulation. Prof. Robert Crossler and ZDNET’s resident presidential scholar discuss the digital challenges facing our upcoming election cycles.

Back in September, I investigated what generative AI would do to our elections. One of the bigger surprises was how much of an effect generative AI is likely to have on local elections.

Also: How Microsoft plans to protect elections from deepfakes

After reading the article, Prof. Robert Crossler reached out to discuss the issues surrounding elections in our digital-centric society. Crossler, an associate professor of information systems at Washington State University, is eminently qualified to discuss this area. His recent article in Government Information Quarterly looks at measuring the effect of political alignment, platforms, and fake news consumption on voter concern for election processes.

Crossler’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. He served as president of the AIS Special Interest Group on Information Security and Privacy from 2019 to 2020. He was also awarded the 2013 Information Systems Society’s Design Science Award for his work on information privacy.

Crossler and I had a fascinating discussion over email. What follows is the contents of our discussion. My questions are in bold font. The only edits are for punctuation.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/elections-2024-how-ai-will-fool-voters-if-we-dont-do-something-now