and Elections will be held in more than 50 countries this year for the total population 4.2 billion people Head to the voting station In 2024 Biggest election year in history. The stakes are high, but there's a wild card that could shake things up: artificial intelligence.
Sometimes, in between horrifyingly convincing deepfakes, fake audio recordings, and other misinformation schemes, AI could take the lead and potentially disrupt the integrity of elections around the world. Meanwhile, AI can help election officials quickly verify anomalies in voter lists or signatures on ballots, or scan paper ballots to speed up time to report results. And it has the potential to improve the electoral process like never before.
Pima County Recorder Gabriela Cazares-Kelly They are being cautious in deciding when and how to use artificial intelligence.
“I'm very conscious about AI. We're just learning how some of these services can help us in our work.” Cazares-Kelly Said.
Cazares-Kelly lead to Pima County Recorder's Officemainly focuses on e.early voting and Registration.Specifically, the secretariat will be in charge of Maintain and update over 630,000 voter records Manage Voter Registration and Setting up and operating early voting sites.
One way the Recorder’s Office is beginning to incorporate AI into the election process is by agilis machine.
“[The machine is] It has a scanner and a sorter and has the ability to identify. [early voting or mail-in ballots] The signature is missing.” Cazares-Kelly Said. “This machine allows us to quickly identify unsigned envelopes, as opposed to the time-consuming process of checking each envelope individually.”
Cazares-Kelly He also noted that the Agilis Machine has additional capabilities, but likely won't be ready for deployment during this election cycle.
“You can also have Agilis perform a first pass of signature verification.” Cazares-Kelly Said. “If the signature we have on file and the signature in the envelope are significantly different, Asili can separate that and review it much earlier in the process to contact voters.”
AI-assisted recorder's office In smaller ways as well, especially in the development of phone trees. Cazares-Kelly Her team uses recordings of her voice to generate AI audio for the office phone tree, creating authentic audio that reflects the office's voice while avoiding the hours-long recording sessions this process typically takes. We mentioned that we have made it possible to use human-like voices. pima county community.
of Pima County Elections DepartmentWhich Works in conjunction with the Recorder's Office and handle Election Day Voting and Counting or Tallying Ballotshas taken a similar, and even more modest, approach to implementing AI into its processes.
“Our process is pretty set in how we do things, from creating the ballots to tabulating them and counting them,” he said. jeremy georgeThis is the staff. Pima County Elections Department. “None of these things are actually AI or internet-based.”
Another impact AI could have on elections is by creating increasingly persuasive misinformation.early this year Slovakia, AI-generated recording of leading candidate bragging about election fraud goes viral online A few days before voters head to the polls. Candidate is over Loseand while it is unconfirmed whether the fake recordings influenced the results, examples like this highlight the dangers of AI if left unchecked.
To avoid being fooled by such false information, george He emphasized the importance of consulting reliable sources of information.
“If you have questions about elections, please visit our website, the Secretary of State’s website, or any other trusted .gov location.” george Said.
Cazares-Kelly emphasizes that one of her office's main goals is to combat this type of misinformation and urges people to obtain official information from her office's website and other official Pima County channels. I encouraged them to look for it.
“We strive to establish ourselves as a source of truth for our community by making information accessible, expressing it in plain language that everyone can understand, and demystifying the process. We are working hard on this.” Cazares-Kelly Said.
Her office is also working to combat misinformation in other ways. In particular, we support AZ SB1515bill to make it ACrime generates deepfakes of election officials That is intentionally aimed at spreading false information.
Despite the threats that AI may pose, the Pima County community appears to be more prepared than we think to embrace and leverage AI and technology in the election process.
Cazares-Kelly She recalled the reaction she received after announcing that her office was using the Agiris machine. So she used careful language to explain the machine's capabilities, bracing for the backlash she thought it would receive.
“I actually received responses like, 'Why doesn't that machine use AI?' If this was available, why would she pay for this machine?” Cazares-Kelly Said. “I was leaning a little bit into AI hesitation because I thought that's the audience I was talking to. But it turns out it's actually quite the opposite.”
Experiences like this highlight how important continued collaboration between community members, subject matter experts, and government officials is to optimally shape the role of artificial intelligence in elections. I'm doing it.
Pima County and other parts of the country are still in uncharted territory when it comes to how AI and the electoral process will interact, and the 2024 election could be a sign of the broader future of the relationship between technology and society. It will be a window. Politics.
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