Earlier this year, the United States was introduced to what many speculated to be its first AI political candidate. The race for mayorship in Wyoming saw the rise of an innovative, fully AI-based entity, known as the virtual integrated citizen (VIC). Powered by ChatGPT technology, this digital entity promised to bring a whole new level of governance directed utterly by AI. Many began 2024 with the presumption that AI, whether or not clinching electoral wins, would be pivotal in shaping democracies, given the colossal voter turnouts in over 60 nations, taking the figure well beyond 2 billion.
As we move forward, however, experts and pundits have noted that the influence of AI has been largely overstated and its impact on electoral results was minimal, if not irrelevant. Intriguingly, the anticipation of 2024 as the ‘AI Election Year’ had promising aspects, yet fell short in definitive outcomes. Ostensibly, the perceived danger around AI in politics was largely relegated to the realm of deepfakes and their potential misuse.
Surprisingly, many political campaigns showcased a resistant stance towards employing deepfakes. This hesitation was largely influenced by a fresh set of state-level legislations which demanded the explicit disclosure of AI usage in political promotions. The prevalent view remains that no political entity, candidate, or advertiser is willing to stomach the associated risks.
Analysis of AI involvement in election processes suggests that deepfakes were not geared towards deceit primarily. Instances of AI-created content were often ideated to demonstrate support for, or even fandom towards, specific candidates. In an ironic twist, deepfakes were not the manipulative instruments they were initially feared to be – they actually managed to reinforce pre-established partisan lines.
There were, nevertheless, instances of misleading deepfakes that found their way into public discourse during the elections. The election scene in Bangladesh, for instance, saw the appearance of deepfakes rallying supporters of a political party to abstain from casting their votes. The proliferation of such AI-created forgeries has seen an uptick in recent times.
The struggle persists in the inadequate measures present to detect AI-created media. This year’s experience proved that the use of AI for propagating deceptive narratives is not widespread across polling landscapes. A new concern has risen from the ashes of synthetic media – politicians using the specter of AI to reject proof of real events.
Subtle incorporations of AI were more commonly observed throughout the political atmosphere in 2024. The application of AI for generating copy for emails, ad campaigns, or campaign speeches began to emerge, sometimes unnoticed and hard to quantify due to its subtlety.
AI unequivocally still managed to leave a significant footprint in these elections. Its roles spanned a range from automating language translations and strategizing, to campaign canvassing. It is worth noting that the utility of AI extends beyond the realm of political combat.
AI tools were at various times employed to foster connections between candidates and voters, and even in handling bureaucratic formalities. Such implementations, one could argue, carry a democratic potential in their ability to engage more individuals in the electoral dialogue and support fledgling campaigns to tap into otherwise elusive resources.
There is no denying that generative AI has begun to infiltrate US political campaigns. Yet, these tools are in their infancy and only time will reveal their full potential. The notion of an election characterized entirely by the influence of AI may still be on the horizon.
AI Political Candidate: Just Another Democrat Pipe Dream? appeared first on Real News Now.
About Author
