Can voters be deceived by artificial intelligence? What are Meta and other companies doing?

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has announced that it will establish a team to combat fake content created with artificial intelligence (AI) during the European Parliament elections to be held in June.

The company is concerned about the potential for AI technology, which can mimic video, photos, and audio, to mislead voters.

However, an industry expert described Meta's plan as "ineffective." This year, elections will be held in more than 60 countries, home to more than half of the world's population.

The US, Russia, India, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are just some of them. With months and weeks left until the elections, politicians are also expressing similar concerns regarding artificial intelligence.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly recently stated in an interview with The Times that some individuals would use fake content generated by AI to influence elections.

WHAT EXACTLY WILL META DO?

Marco Pancini, Meta's head of EU affairs, who is also the owner of WhatsApp and Threads, announced in a blog post that the company would establish an "EU-specific Election Operations Center" and that this center would "identify potential threats and take specific measures in real-time across apps and technologies."

Pancini said, "Since 2016, we have invested more than 20 billion dollars in the field of security and have quadrupled our global team working in this area, employing 40 thousand people."

Pancini stated that this includes 15 thousand people who review content on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in more than 70 languages, and pointed out that engineers, data experts, and legal professionals have been brought together in this process.

According to Deepak Padmanabhan from Queen's University Belfast, a co-author of a paper on elections and artificial intelligence, there are some shortcomings in the plan announced by Meta.

Padmanabhan says, "We can say that the planned strategy will be ineffective in key areas."

Questioning how Meta plans to deal with images generated by artificial intelligence, Padmanabhan thinks that it may not be possible to implement the strategy.

Giving the example of what would happen in a situation where realistic images generated by artificial intelligence show protesters clashing with the police, Padmanabhan says:

"To prove that the images are fake, we need to be sure that there is no conflict. This may not be possible for both technology and experts.

"How can any technology classify this as real or fake? Therefore, it is not very clear how effective Meta's strategy can be. At the very least, there are serious limitations."

Meta currently works with 26 fact-checking organizations across the EU and says it will add three more partners based in Bulgaria, France, and Slovakia.

The role of these organizations is not to deal with content aimed at suppressing voting, because such posts are already prohibited.

Rather, the organizations aim to detect content that spreads misinformation, including elements generated by artificial intelligence.

Meta's head of EU affairs, Marco Pancini, states that warning labels will be added to such posts, so that the posts will not be highlighted.

It is also stated that fake posts will not be allowed in advertisements. Stating that these efforts are the result of collaborations, Pancini emphasizes that more coordination will be required in the future as follows:

"Since content generated by artificial intelligence appears across the internet, we are also working with other companies in our industry on common standards and guidelines. This work goes beyond a single company. It will require a major effort across industry, government, and civil society."

WHAT PATH ARE OTHER COMPANIES FOLLOWING?

Two weeks ago, a total of 20 technology companies, including Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Adobe, signed an agreement to work together to combat fake AI content before the elections.

Social media platform TikTok also announced in recent weeks that it would establish "Election Centers" in local languages for 27 EU member countries in its application, and that reliable official information would be available in these centers.

News Source: 12punto