One expert is sounding a new alarm ahead of the 2024 elections.
Originally published at WND News Center. Used with permission.
Artificial intelligence in just the past few weeks and months has raised such concerns that even its own experts, by the hundreds, have been calling for a pause on development of such software. Some view it as a threat to humanity’s future.
At the same time, America is approaching an election season following the 2020 and 2022 campaigns in which false information routinely was trumpeted as the truth – such as the Democrats’ claim that the incendiary details of Biden family scandals found in a laptop Hunter Biden abandoned was nothing but Russian disinformation. Or that there was substance to the Democrat-create “Russia collusion” claims against President Trump.
Putting those two trends together now, as the 2024 campaigns are approaching, should leave voters “scared s***less,” according to one expert.
A report from Fox News explained the comment was from Gary Marcus, professor emeritus of cognitive science at New York University.
A recognized expert on AI, he recently told Fortune that advanced artificial intelligence platforms could pose a danger to election security as soon as the next election.
Some experts in the field suggest those software programs could become a major source of misinformation.
Cited as a recent example was an image, posted by an account named Chicago Lakefront News, of Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. Included was a faked recording where he appeared to downplay the problem of police shootings.
According to Fox, “The tweet was seen by thousands of people, despite it quickly being debunked as a fake recording that was generated by an artificial intelligence platform designed to closely mimic voices. Vallas would eventually lose in a close runoff two months later in April, though the fake recording was not seen as a deciding factor in the race. Nevertheless, Marcus said he believes the technology will play a major role in future elections.”
Marcus’ comment to Fortune was that it was hard to see “how AI-generated misinformation will not become a major force.”
Marcus warned that the technology could be used by adversaries such as Russia, to target American voters with a flood of misinformation.
However, Chris Meserole, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in AI, said the fears didn’t have a lot of foundation.
He said the tech is not yet advanced enough to make a significant impact.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.