In 2024, voters in at least 64 nations will head to the polls in highly consequential elections. From the U.S. to India, from Venezuela to South Africa, countries comprising close to 50 percent of the world's population are set to hold national elections this year, the results of which will shape the contours of global affairs for the rest of this decade and beyond.
For all the talk about how this batch of elections will determine how serious the planet is about confronting climate change, or how we will collectively deal with global issues like migration, food security, and global conflict, there is one other reason why these elections will always be remembered: 2024 will be the year when AI-generated deep fakes will alter, and in many cases change, the outcome of democratically-held elections across the globe.
2024, to put it bluntly, will be remembered as the year when fake news and misinformation became full-fledged adults.
Recently, voters in New Hampshire received a robocall purportedly from U.S. President Joe Biden, urging them to abstain from participating in the state's presidential primary election. The voice, synthesized through artificial intelligence, bore a striking resemblance to the real Joe Biden; it advised recipients to withhold their primary vote, falsely alleging that doing so would impede their ability to partake in the subsequent November general........