How AI is changing the 2024 election | The Hill

[0:00]Our colleagues at the Hill are now with a new piece about that looking at how AI is changing the 2024 elections. Rebecca Clare is Clara is here, technology policy reporter for The Hill. All right, Rebecca. I guess the bigger question is, what is there that we can believe? Right. So I think that there's been this concern in the last several election cycles of deep fakes and how generated material is going to impact campaigns in terms of video and and photo content. I think what we're starting to see now especially on the Republican primary campaign season is sort of the use of this technology. And you know, experts that we spoke to said that in part this has become this because this technology has become so much more prevalent to the public and a lot more accessible for people who aren't experts in it to use. Um, but it it could lead to problems where voters are trying to discern what is generated and and what actually happened. So I, uh, maybe I'm Polly Anish. I'm sure I'm Polly Anish. But I see, when I think about AI in campaigns and politics, I see it as a great leveler and a great equalizer. Because instead of needing a huge campaign and massive resources to put together an ad, you could do it more cheaply. Uh, I I see AI as a tool that candidates and campaigns can use uh to break through what used to be massively, cripplingly expensive races. Aren't there upsides uh for people who want to run for office? Right, so there's definitely also use of I think in in part what's happened with sorry, the rise of generative AI is sort of the use of these terms getting thrown around. And the technology is so expansive and some of it is video content, some of it's audio content, and some of it is, you know, auto generating emails to voters or or fundraising. So I think that there are, you know, experts that we spoke to that did note a lot of those benefits in terms of helping to level the playing field as you mentioned. Um, but there's also concerns in terms of how candidates should have to disclose this information or how social media platforms are going to deal with it, uh given that experts and advocates have already noted the the rise of disinformation in the last few election cycles. So like I'm seven out of 10 for Polly Anish. I'll take that. Yeah, but you know, I I, uh, Polly Anish or not, you said that I didn't, but I don't I don't disagree with your benefits. What I'm concerned about is the falsity and the fakeness that comes with AI and how candidates, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, can use it against other candidates as if it's real or it occurred or it's accurate. And they believe it and then they vote according to what they believe, which is based on false AI information. Right, so I think one of the big concerns is also if there are rules in place to label this information or to take it down as as you get closer and closer to elections, especially if we're not talking about a presidential election where you're talking about a state race or congressional race where there's, you know, less pool of voters and it that timing is really crucial. Um, that even when that information is out and is spreading out, even if there's action taken on it, that it could impact how someone votes as much as it spreads. Well, I think you take that and then you give the fact that Americans have very short attention spans. And so if they just see something very quickly, it can be very impressionable whether or not you know it's true or not, so it's very concerning to me. And I was going to say one more question too, you saw we see it a lot in foreign adversaries use it as well. I track a lot of what Russia and Ukraine and how they're using it as well, so it's it's very active in the in the foreign adversaries sphere as well. Definitely, I think that's definitely going to be something that people are on the lookout for is how foreign adversaries use this in terms of how they've run this information network, networks on social media in the past. And I think another interesting point that experts pointed out is how this could lead people to also question what is real and and use their own political bias to maybe think everything's generated. Thanks for watching. Go to newsnationnow.com to find News Nation on your television provider. And don't forget to subscribe, click the red button to get more of News Nation's fact driven, unbiased coverage.