2024 is the single largest election year since the advent of the internet.
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More than half of the world’s population, from over 80 countries including some of the world’s largest democracies, are voting this year. This cycle has been dubbed the “First AI Election,” in light of the boom in widely accessible generative AI tools that have the potential to accelerate cybersecurity and information integrity challenges to global elections this year.
Though we are more than halfway through this election year, there is still work to be done to ensure global elections are free, fair, and secure, and CDT is working to ensure we all have a clear path forward.
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When it comes to deepfakes and manipulated content, generative AI developers can act as a first line of defense in countering election mis- and disinformation. CDT’s recent report, Election Integrity Recommendations for Generative AI Developers, outlines 22 recommendations covering all aspects of the development cycle: by creating guardrails to what can be generated on their services, embedding machine-readable watermarks and metadata in all generated content, and engaging researchers and civil society in transparency reporting and testing, generative AI developers can play a critical role in limiting the misuse of their tools to interfere with elections. The report is the first of its kind to propose a comprehensive set of election integrity recommendations specifically for AI developers.
Social media platforms, of course, have a central role in addressing the spread of mis- and disinformation about elections. Platforms must continue to invest in content moderation and transparency tools, amidst troubling trends to reorganize and scale down relevant teams. Users, especially political candidates and their campaigns, can pledge to refrain from the use of AI-generated content, allowing them to be a trusted source of information.
Election officials need to be prepared for the increased scrutiny and pressure that will naturally come around during this election cycle. Generative AI, as stated above, can exacerbate mis- and disinformation, allowing for hyper-targeted campaigns at unprecedented scale that will need to be combatted. Election officials may face deepfake images or audio that purport to show people interfering with election processes – and generative AI tools could also be used to generate and submit FOIA requests or administrative complaints, distracting election officials from the critical job of securing elections. CDT has been providing training to election officials across the country, encouraging them to cultivate channels for sharing trusted information and shore up their cybersecurity practices, while driving a larger public conversation about how to shore up public trust in elections.
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Senate Rules Committee Advances Bills to Address Harmful AI in Elections
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READ
An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States
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WATCH
CDT CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens Discussing Impact of Election Misinformation, Disinformation Impact Non-English Speakers
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While all eyes are on November for the U.S. election, CDT is also thinking of what comes next. We continue to examine the intersection of elections and disability rights, both in the physical and digital world. We also will conduct a postmortem on this year’s election cycle around the globe, evaluating how information threats from generative AI played out in different countries. Through it all, CDT will continue advocating and providing training for election officials, bolstering resilience to threats from generative AI and other forms of mis- and disinformation.
All of this work and more is dependent on partners like you. If you are not yet engaged in this work and want to learn more, please reply to this email to join the conversation. You can help put civil rights and civil liberties at the center of the digital revolution.
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![Graphic for a CDT report, entitled "An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States." Illustration depicting a woman's leg in kitten heel stomping on malicious social media posts while casting a shadow of the U.S. capital building.](https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20240821/a2/8a/73/9d/72474b11a1607272c9a24f9e.png "Graphic for a CDT report, entitled "An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States." Illustration depicting a woman's leg in kitten heel stomping on malicious social media posts while casting a shadow of the U.S. capital building.")
