We Looked at 78 Election Deepfakes. Political Misinformation is not an AI Problem.

AI Snake Oil · 1 year ago

Researchers analyzed 78 documented cases of AI use in 2024 global elections and found that half involved no deceptive intent, while the remaining deceptive cases could have been replicated without AI for modest costs of a few hundred dollars. Cheap fakes—traditional edited videos—were used 7 to 20 times more frequently than deepfakes across various elections, suggesting AI is not the primary driver of political misinformation. The study concludes that addressing political misinformation requires focusing on demand-side factors like confirmation bias rather than restricting AI-generated content supply.