Why AI disinformation hasn't moved the needle in the 2024 election
From Fast Company, October 24, 2024
AI disinformation remains a “future” threat to elections
As we’re hurtling toward election day, it appears, at least, so far that the threat of AI disinformation hasn’t materialized in ways that could influence large numbers of votes.
During a late-September conference call on foreign election interference, organized by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, NBC reported that officials said that while AI has made it easier for foreign actors from China, Russia, and Iran to create disinformation, it has not fundamentally changed how those disinformation operations work.
AI can indeed be used to make deepfakes, but foreign provocateurs and propagandists have so far struggled to access advanced models needed to create them. Many of the generative AI tools they would require are controlled by U.S. companies, and those companies have been successful in detecting malign use.
