McCain Institute panel addresses the role AI could play — and is playing — in this year’s election

The McCain Institute at Arizona State University hosted a panel on Thursday night to discuss how artificial intelligence could play a role in this year’s election.

Panelists included Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates and Bret Schafer from the Alliance for Securing Democracy, among others.

AI has already been used multiple times this election season in attempts to manipulate voters — and Schafer said these aren’t always attempts to get people to believe the content.

“This is the trick and the thing I’m concerned about too,” he said. “It’s not so much that AI will get us to start believing in things that aren’t real, it’ll get us to start doubting the things that are real.”

Schafer also said that while AI isn’t new to us, the speed that disinformation can be generated is.

Adrian Fontes discussed the ways election workers in Maricopa County are being trained to more easily detect deep fakes:

“What we wanted was our elections officials to at least be familiar with the notion of [deep fakes],” he said, “so that if and when it did show up in the real world during our election season, they wouldn't be wowed by it, they wouldn't be surprised by it, it would be less impressive on them.”

Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates expressed concern that AI disinformation could even surface on the morning of Election Day:

“Getting up on election day, those polls open at six o'clock, and at 6:05 someone could put a video out with me or one of my colleagues or Stephen Richer spreading lies.”

Gates said that AI disinformation is likely to occur between now and Election Day, and that spotting it will require people to stay alert.

The Arizona secretary of state's AI & Election Security Advisory Committee has also published some tips on validating information: