Next year's elections in Britain and the US could be marked by a wave of AI-powered disinformation, experts have warned, as generated images, text and deepfake videos go viral at the behest of swarms of AI-powered propaganda bots. Sam Altman, CEO of the ChatGPT creator, OpenAI, told a congressional hearing in Washington this week that the models behind the latest generation of AI technology could manipulate users. "The general ability of these models to manipulate and persuade, to provide one-on-one interactive disinformation is a significant area of concern," he said. "Regulation would be quite wise: people need to know if they're talking to an AI, or if content that they're looking at is generated or not. The ability to really model … to predict humans, I think is going to require a combination of companies doing the right thing, regulation and public education."

The recent proliferation and popularity of artificial intelligence-powered software that can produce imagery based on text prompts means that creating AI-generated images, videos and sometimes even voices is no longer something that can be undertaken by a select few. Now, pretty much anyone with a digital device can use online software to generate such content. McAfee predicts that these tools will empower scammers, propagandists and other cyber criminals who want to influence public opinion. These tools will also allow criminals to create counterfeit and manipulated images without the need for professional expertise. With the fallout surrounding the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX and the fall from the grace of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, there has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Web3 industry.