How to combat deceptive AI in 2024 elections, Mongolian ex-minister recommends

At least 64 countries around the world will be holding general elections in 2024 to elect new leaders in their respective countries. The U.S., Indonesia, and Taiwan are included in the numbers, and in the Global South, countries including Pakistan, India, Algeria, and South Africa will be holding their elections.

With these numbers, there have been concerns about the spread of fabrications and fake news particularly in the face of emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Deepfakes, which involve the wrongful use of digital media to manipulate information and content will be on the rise and cannot be avoided Battsengel said, but they can be regulated if big Tech companies like Meta which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Google, and X Corp among others use their influence to regulate the information disseminated on their respective platforms.

“This year, we have about 70 elections around the world which is a huge number and obviously, you have Deep Fake, AI, and a lot of technologies that can spread, fake news that can lead to chaos and create a detrimental impact in society. To be honest, I think it will be very challenging to avoid Deep Fake for example but there are things that we can do and the most important thing is that it has to come from Tech companies, to be able to detect the use of Deep Fake on Facebook for example and ban the content. It will take quite a lot of hard work from the tech companies, so they can analyse the content and instantly delete the offensive content, that is leading to misinformation,” she said while speaking to GSW’s Wonder Hagan.

Battsengel further recommended that giant global tech companies must cooperate with respective governments whose countries will be holding elections to find strategic ways to curb and control the dissemination of fake news during elections.

She also highlighted the role of international organisations in the promotion of digital literacy in many developing Global South countries and generally countries across the world.

“They obviously have to cooperate with the governments. But international organisations like the International Trade Organisation (ITO), the UN, and the World Bank, also have very important roles in this to be able to help especially develop the countries with for example digital literacy,” she added.

Meanwhile, 20 of the world's largest tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, have agreed to tackle what they are calling deceptive artificial intelligence (AI) in elections. The BBC reported that the firms signed the ‘Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections’ committing them to fighting voter-deceiving content.

Under this pact, they agree to adopt technology to detect and counter deceptive AI material.

The Tech Accord was announced at the Munich Security Conference on February 16.