Fakery snakery

Jolene looks at the video in amazement. There is Donald Trump handing out food to hungry children; giving a bed in his own house to a homeless man; addressing a rally in support of women's rights; receiving a medal for courage in Vietnam; punching President Putin on the nose! Maybe she should vote for him in the presidential election.

But then she notices a small label in the corner of her screen: "Made with AIA computer programme that has been designed to think. ."

MetaThe new name of the company which owns Facebook and Instagram. announced last week that, starting in May, labels like this would appear on Instagram, Facebook and Threads. They will be applied to AI-generated videos, pictures and audio clips.

The power of AI to make mischief is already clear. There have been fake audio clips of Keir StarmerThe leader of the UK Labour Party since 2020 and British prime minister since July 2024. and Sadiq KhanThe current Mayor of London. , and fake phone calls from President Biden. There has even been a whole fake interview with a Ukrainian official appearing to claim credit for the recent terrorist attack in Moscow.

Many people are concerned about the influence such posts could have on upcoming elections. The question is whether effective countermeasures can be implemented in time. America's presidential election will take place in November, and Britain's general election by the end of January.

In February, tech companies including TikTok, Microsoft and X signed an agreement promising to combat political fakes. New HampshireA state in the north-east US with a population of nearly 1.4 million. 's attorney general announced legal action against the company which faked the Biden phone calls.

That same month the US House of RepresentativesThe lower chamber of the United States congress. There are 435 representatives, with a certain number allocated to each state based on the state's population. set up a taskforce to see how AI might be regulated. In March, leading researchers signed an open letter calling for AI companies to be made legally responsible for harmful fakes using their technology.

Both Meta and OpenAIAn American artificial intelligence company. It says its mission is to "benefit all of humanity". have started putting watermarksA logo, text or pattern that is deliberately put over an image to make it more difficult to use without permission. on AI-generated images. A new charity, TrueMedia.org, has released free tools to help anyone detect fakes.

But the charity's head, Dr Oren Etzioni, warns that no tools are entirely effective. When it comes to elections, "I'm terrified. There is a very good chance we are going to see a tsunamiA Japanese word describing a succession of waves caused when an earthquake or volcano displaces a large body of water. of misinformation."¹

To deal with it, there needs to be co-operation between governments, AI companies and tech giants - and he does not believe the chances of that happening before November are high.

Is it enough?

Yes: People are on the lookout for deepfakes anyway, and this will make them far easier to spot. Tech giants like Microsoft have so much expertise at their disposal that little will get past them. 

No: The technology used to create deepfakes is amazing and is going to get more and more sophisticated as time goes on. It will always be one step ahead of those who are trying to combat it.

Or... It is unclear whether deepfakes can swing an election or not. China's attempts to undermine Taiwan's recent elections failed, but Russia's efforts in Slovakia seem to have been successful.