Americans vote today in the midterm elections, and alongside the cyber threats we wrote about last week there is another threat: deepfakes and misinformation spread with AI. Ahead of the election, California's attorney general issued a consumer alert noting that AI tools are being used to spread election misinformation.
Fake ads
According to Tribune, some campaigns are already using "deepfake" ads ahead of the elections. The California alert cites as an example an AI-generated ad in the Texas Senate race. A Purdue professor warned this could further erode voter trust. In New York, the law requires fake messages to be labeled, but according to a WAMC commentary, many viewers miss the label.
Voter intimidation
According to reports, one of the biggest fears is using fakes to scare people away from the polls, such as a fake video of violence at a polling place. Another kind of scam is fake messages or calls in the name of election officials giving wrong information about where and when to vote.
The lesson for Israel
Israel itself has just come out of an election, and the challenges are similar. The advice to voters everywhere: check voting information only with official sources, be suspicious of sensational videos spread on social media right before the election, and remember that full results aren't always published on election night.
