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Parties told to track voice-cloning that can soil polls outcome
View(s):By Ishu Bandara
The upcoming Presidential Election could be a challenge for candidates and voters due to the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various ways, experts in the field have cautioned.
While AI can bring many benefits to the election process, it also poses several risks and potential negative impacts, such as spreading disinformation and manipulating public opinion.
Dr. Ajantha Athukorala, director of the University of Colombo School of Computing, told the Sunday Times: “AI comes from different angles, and people are using it for various purposes, and probably in the last one and a half years, there has been a huge improvement in AI. AI is designed for something good, but it can also be used for bad as well.
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- Sujeewa Ganganath Pix by Akila Jayawardena
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- Merl Chandana
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- Dr. Ajantha Athukorala
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- Darshatha Gamage
“Newspapers and electronic media like television and radio have their own processes, but when it comes to social media, you can post whatever you want, with or without facts. If it is interesting and appealing, people will read it and believe it. Social media has become the distribution part of media, and AI makes it easier to do these things. Because of this, there is some sort of impact coming through social media, which can be for the good, but there is a huge possibility of disinformation.”
Dr. Athukorala said artificially generated speeches using AI could be created, as had been seen elsewhere in the world.
In the US, fake speeches by President Joe Biden have been detected.
Dr. Athukorala cautioned that such AI-generated news appearing at the last minute of an election campaign could significantly affect the outcome.
He expects the impact of social media on this year’s election to be greater than before because of the use of AI. He noted that if individuals are operating and hosting content from outside Sri Lanka, such as from Russia, India, or the USA, it becomes challenging for Sri Lankan authorities to identify them.
“We need more organisations to raise awareness and advocate for the public about the disinformation being created using Artificial Intelligence during this election period. The media should conduct awareness campaigns, and other organisations, such as Non Governmental Organisations, should collaborate with the PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) and Election Commission to educate the community,’’ Dr. Athukorala said.
“Politicians should realise the importance of voter awareness regarding disinformation spread through AI during their speeches.’’
Sujeewa Ganganath, National Coordinator of the PAFFREL told the Sunday Times: “In the last three elections, we identified the influence of social media and made agreements with both the Election Commission and Facebook. Now, with AI’s potential impact in the upcoming presidential election, we are collaborating with the expertise of Hashtag Generation to analyse these AI challenges.’’
“Our goal is to develop a strategic plan and conduct public awareness programmes to prevent any negative effects on the election process. We recognised that AI generated voices can be used to create fake speeches or statements, spread misinformation, and influence public opinion, as in the recent case of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan,’’
In every election, PAFFREL uses 7,000 to 10,000 observers across the country, along with coordinators. While conducting voter education programmes, more time will be spent raising awareness about the adverse impact of AI in the upcoming presidential election. It specifically aims to educate first-time voters and the student parliament.
As in the previous election, PAFFREL will focus closely on the pre-election period, and once the election period is officially announced, it plans to report daily to the Election Commission on various issues, including AI-related violations.
“Political parties have a significant responsibility to prevent voters from being misled by new technologies such as AI, and they have the ability to address every section of the community from top to bottom,’’ Mr. Ganganath said.
Darshatha Gamage, head of programmes at Hashtag Generation, mentioned that during the 2019 and 2020 elections, they collaborated with PAFFREL to monitor election law violations on social media and online platforms. PAFFREL handled the ground observation and plans to continue this collaboration for the upcoming presidential election.
“As AI technology increasingly influences elections, the public should stay alert and fight disinformation by always cross-checking news and claims with reputable sources,’’ Mr. Darshatha advised. He suggested that suspicious or misleading content on social media platforms be reported.
Merl Chandana, research manager and leader of the data algorithms and policy team at LIRNEasia, told the Sunday Times: “AI has the potential to create misleading and harmful content. It can generate text, video, audio, and photos. However, text generation is not advanced for local languages, especially Sinhala.
“Tamil might see some progress due to developers in South India, making it a bit more advanced than Sinhala.
“There’s no need to worry about AI’s text-generating capabilities in Sinhala, but someone could take 15 minutes of a candidate’s speech, train AI to mimic their voice, and then produce fake audio. This fake audio could be circulated on platforms like WhatsApp, making it seem like the candidate said something they didn’t.
“This is very problematic with WhatsApp circulations, as it’s difficult to trace the origin, but it sounds like the person actually said it. Although this hasn’t been observed here yet, especially around elections, it has been an issue in Pakistan and India in recent elections. While video manipulation is more advanced and harder to debunk, audio is more easily spreadable.’
“This election will be a good test case to see how advanced local politicians are in using AI. However, parliamentary elections might be much more challenging to manage, especially if AI is involved, because there are many more candidates compared with the presidential election.’’
Election Commission, Chairman R.M.A.L. Ratnayake, told a presser this week that measures are underway to monitor social media, including AI-generated content.
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