Published on July 3, 2024, 1:09 am

In the recent past, we have encountered multiple stories involving the two imminent presidential candidates — Joe Biden and Donald Trump. These instances point out the augmented danger posed by Artificial Intelligence and related technology in a heated race towards presidency. The examples range from purported misinformation, video distortion to blatant false imagery.

The potential to inflict harm on either of these leading candidates is a doubled-edged sword. While AI undoubtedly presents potent advantages across sectors like healthcare or more day-to-day applications like GPS, it could also be grossly misapplied in the sphere of politics. One specific concern revolves around “generative AI” that can fabricate human voices, imagery, text, and video—creating some of the worst kind of “fake news.”

It becomes chilling to imagine how AI might be abused during an election campaign or even worse on elections day itself—for instance November 5, 2024. Misuse of this powerful tool can have catastrophic consequences.

Recent claims related to video distortions that incriminate Joe Biden come across as suspicious at best. Whether they’re true or not is beside the point. What’s important to note here is that deceptive behavior through video manipulation by deploying AI poses very real risks during elections.

AI has had its share in Presidential Elections before for example when researchers at the University of Washington and MIT fabricated voice and video imagery of Barack Obama some six years back. Picture this: What if individual fraudsters released footage endorsing various left-wing presidential candidates instead of Joe Biden on November 5th, 2024?

This directly leads us to ponder upon Donald Trump’s perspective on AI’s potential. On one side, Trump said that it enabled him with immaculate speeches magically produced within seconds thanks to his top personnel backed with AI tools.

On a darker note though he discussed his apprehensions regarding falsified videos promoting products under his name created so well that even he himself couldn’t discern them as forgeries: ‘’The voice was perfect, the lips moved perfectly with every word.” Such technology has scary implications due to national-security reasons.

Bringing forward an imagined political scenario involving Trump during the November 2024 campaign would help clarify how AI-generated content could potentially manipulate the electoral process. Suppose a fake video connecting him to Putin and Russian collusion surfaced on election morning. What if this video exploded across media channels before Trump could firmly deny its authenticity? This uncertainty could be enough to sway an election marginally held by less than 1%.

Therefore, it is critical for both parties and the public to prepare themselves against the growing threat of AI. Technological groups are currently producing demonstrations that show what fake AI-generated content looks like in an attempt inoculate voters and equip campaign teams with necessary responses. Organizations have begun sprouting up, focusing solely on combatting AI’s shadowy potential influence over elections.

It’s time we approach our understanding of AI’s role in politics with caution because following a Christian worldview one must prioritize truth and ethics in every sphere of life including politics. In today’s world where real news is often hard to discern from trusted news, this artificial intelligence influenced “reality” can wreak confusion and chaos like never before prompting us all be vigilant about fake news manipulated through technology.