Policy Backgrounders

Tech Companies Pledge to Combat AI Election Interference

February 21, 2024

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead™

Last week, 20 leading technology companies – including OpenAI, Meta, and Google – announced a voluntary set of standards, principles and commitments to combat deceptive AI content from interfering with elections both in the US and around the world. The Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections pledges the companies to work collaboratively on tools to detect and address online usage of deceptive AI generated election content, drive public awareness campaigns on media literacy, and foster cross-industry resilience.

• The 2024 US presidential election is the first in which generative AI tools are widely accessible, giving bad actors the opportunity to develop deepfakes – realistic yet artificial audio, video, and images. A deepfake robocall during the New Hampshire presidential primary illustrated the dangers.
• On February 6, Meta Platforms announced that it would begin detecting and labeling images generated by other companies’ AI services in the next several months. Meta also plans to detect and label images created on services run by OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney, Shutterstock, and Alphabet’s Google.
• While the Accord is a welcome sign of growing recognition of the issue and the dangers to elections from AI-generated disinformation, the commitments remain voluntary, and the real test will come when incidents occur as elections approach.