Is this year of elections also the year of deepfakes?

by Sabīne Bērziņa

Many people around the world already distrust their election systems. What will happen when artificial intelligence enters the picture?

There have been a lot of warnings that in 2024, when millions around the globe head to the polls, we might face unprecedented, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered efforts to mislead voters. So far, we’re mostly seeing satire.

In late 2023, Karen Rebelo from the Indian fact-checking outlet BOOM Live first stumbled upon videos she suspected were made using AI-generated voice clones of politicians. She wasn’t sure what to do. As part of her job as a fact-checker, she “debunks” fakery but she cannot publish a debunk based on a gut feeling. 

The videos looked poorly made, but the audio sounded real which was confusing. “It sounded uncannily like their voices. It didn’t sound robotic in any way,” Rebelo said.

It took months to finally find experts who tested and confirmed her suspicion. The experts found that a popular AI tool was likely used that enables the uploading of voice samples for text-to-speech generation. 

Rebelo worried that she would see an overwhelming amount of false AI-generated content in the run-up to the general election in India this spring. But to her surprise, she turned out to be wrong. At least so far.

Deepfakes or just ugly cartoons?

So far in 2024, AI tools have already been used for fake election endorsements, bot comments and spreading calls to boycott elections. Nevertheless, experts say we still rarely see the so-called deepfakes that are indistinguishable from authentic videos or would pose concerning consequences. 

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