Artificial intelligence has yet to affect election results

Artificial intelligence has not yet changed election results Keystone-SDA

Artificial intelligence has not yet had a decisive influence on election results, according to researchers in Switzerland who analysed this year's elections in almost 100 countries.

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However, the spread of content manipulated with artificial intelligence (AI) has further divided political opinion and created a climate of mistrust, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) wrote in a press release on the report on Tuesday.

For example, AI-manipulated videos, known as deepfakes, have been used in elections in several countries, it said. In the report, the EPFL researchers cite the 2023 elections in Switzerland, in which parliamentarian Andreas Glarner created a deepfake video of his political rival Sibel Arslan, as an example of this. Another example, according to the report, is Donald Trump’s repeated claim that all negative reports about him are deepfakes.

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In India, a deepfake video of Bollywood star Aamir Khan was used during the 2024 elections, falsely showing his support for a political party. In Indonesia, videos emerged in which a dead politician addressed voters.

Manipulation simplified

The use of manipulated content for propaganda purposes is nothing new, the researchers emphasised. However, AI has made it much easier to create and distribute manipulated images and content, which accelerates the spread of political propaganda and increases the risk of disinformation.

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The analysis was carried out by researchers from the Initiative for Media Innovation (IMI) and published in the initiative’s magazine Décryptage.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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