AI Isn't Our Election Safety Problem, Disinformation Is

This election cycle will be the first exposed to generative artificial intelligence--the technology behind popular apps like ChatGPT that enables even non-experts to create fake, but realistic-looking text, video, and audio perfectly suited for political manipulation. At the same time, a number of the major social-media companies have retreated from some of their prior commitments to promote "election integrity." The November election is also the first that will register the impact of the enormous popularity of TikTok, which uses a recommendation algorithm that some experts believe is particularly suited to spreading misinformation. Let's start with the rise of generative AI, which allows virtually anyone to produce persuasive text, imagery, or sound based on relatively simple natural-language prompts. In January, Facebook circulated a fake AI-generated image of Donald Trump sitting next to Jeffrey Epstein on the disgraced financier and sex offender's private jet.