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Democratic tech leaders, like Zinc Labs CEO Matt Hodges, told me that training campaigns on these tools now could avoid headaches later.
“We don’t want to start that process in six months. Starting today is how we stay ahead of that curve,” says Hodges, who was also director of engineering for Biden 2020. Zinc Labs also offers AI training for campaigns.
Earlier this year, big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft signed a pact agreeing to implement “reasonable precautions” to prevent their generative AI tools from contributing to any electoral catastrophe around the world. The agreement requires companies to detect and label misleading content created with AI.
Microsoft and Google have also merged their labeling and watermarking programs into the campaign workshops. Microsoft says it offers a crash course on its “content credentials,” or watermarking technology, and explains to campaigns how they can apply it to their own campaign materials to ensure authenticity. Similarly, Google explains its own program, SynthID, which tags images created with its artificial intelligence tools.
It is these types of content authentication regimes that Big Tech believes could alleviate the risks of deepfakes, cheapfakes and other forms of AI-altered content disrupting the US elections.
But despite signing technology agreements and other voluntary measures, none of these authentication methods are foolproof, as WIRED’s Kate Knibbs previously reported.
And it’s a little more complicated than simply promoting content authentication for Microsoft and Google. Its AI chatbots, Copilot and Gemini, have also not demonstrated that they can answer simple questions about election history. When asked who won the 2020 presidential election, both chatbots refused to give an answer, my colleague David Gilbert reported last week. These would be the models that would provide political guidance to the campaigns. They are also the models behind artificial intelligence robots that answer voters’ questions or present themselves as candidates.
With six months until Election Day, big tech companies are supplying campaigns with both the poison and antidote of next-gen AI. Even if their authentication programs could identify AI-generated content 100 percent of the time, the government would likely need to step in to standardize the technology across the board.
So for now (and probably for the rest of the year) it will be up to the AI industry not to make disastrous mistakes when it comes to creating or detecting harmful content.
The chat room
After reading the phenomenal “Nuclear War: A Scenario” by Annie Jacobsen, I have been a little obsessed with reading about the end of the world. 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 ★~(◠‿◕✿)
So this week I want you to flood my inbox with your worst fears when it comes to AI and all the elections happening this year. I’m looking for something scary but also realistic.
I want to hear from you! Leave a comment on the site or email me at mail@wired.com.
💬 Leave a comment below this article.
Wired readings
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What else are we reading?
🔗 How Americans navigate politics on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram: Despite its change in leadership, X, formerly Twitter, remains the leading platform for users seeking political news. Republicans are also much happier with the platform under Elon Musk’s control, according to a poll. (Bank investigation)
🔗 Surgeon General: Why I am requesting a warning label on social media platforms: In an op-ed for The New York Times, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy explains why he thinks the government should place warning labels on social media platforms. Murthy’s appeal comes ahead of a decision in the Murthy v. Missouri case that is expected to decrease this summer. (The New York Times)
🔗 FOCUS ON THE FACTS: Biden’s pause leaving star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser becomes a target for his opponents: The Biden campaign is facing its first major cheap fakes scandal of the election cycle. Clips from a number of high-profile events, such as the most recent G7 summit, have gone viral on platforms like X after being misleadingly edited to exaggerate the effects of Biden’s age. (AP)
The download
In this week’s WIRED Policy Lab In the podcast, host Leah Feiger chats with my colleague and senior reporter David Gilbert about some recent reporting he’s done on a nationwide militia group organized by an imprisoned January 6 rioter. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
See you next week! You can contact me by email, instagram, x and Signal at makenakelly.32.
