Amid concerns regarding the misuse of AI and deepfakes in this year’s U.S. presidential elections, AI robocalls have begun surfacing in New Hampshire with messages in a voice to voters that was most likely artificially generated to impersonate President Biden’s, urging them not to vote in Tuesday’s primary election.
According to the state attorney general’s office, the AI robocalls replayed the message: “What a bunch of malarkey. You know the value of voting Democratic. Our votes count. It’s important that you save your vote for the November election. We’ll need your help in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. It’s important that you save your vote for the November election. Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” The message then ends with Kathy Sullivan’s phone number.
In response, the office released a statement addressing the AI robocalls. “Although the voice in the robocall sounds like the voice of President Biden, this message appears to be artificially generated based on initial indications. These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary election and suppress New Hampshire voters. New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely.”
Investigations Regarding the AI Robocalls
Many residents in New Hampshire received the messages over the weekend, and NBC News began the research as they stated that the voice on the AI robocalls sounds like Biden’s, but the rhythm is choppy. According to primary investigations, it’s nearly impossible to determine precisely which AI program created the sounds, as programs that can produce reasonably convincing replicas of a person’s voice are widely available as phone apps and online services and are usually available for free or for a small fee.
Lindsay Gorman agreed that the AI robocalls are deepfake, but it is nearly impossible to pinpoint the technology. “The cadence, particularly towards the end, seemed unnatural, robotic. That’s one of the tip offs for a potentially faked piece of audio content. Now deepfakes software has gotten better, and clearly identifying what is or isn’t a deepfake is becoming a game of cat and mouse with developers improving the technology.”
Ben Colman, the CEO of Reality Defender, a company that creates software to test media files to see whether they appear artificially generated, also made his verdict, stating: “All signs point to it being a deepfake. We never say anything 100% certain because we do not have the ground truth, but the likelihood of manipulation is high.”
Democrats Urges Lawmakers to Take Action Against the People Behind the AI Robocalls
As the primary victim of the entire AI robocalls fiasco, Kathy Sullivan was adamant not to let things slide. “I want them to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible because this is an attack on democracy. This call links back to my personal cell phone number without my permission. It is outright election interference and clearly an attempt to harass me and other New Hampshire voters who are planning to write in Joe Biden on Tuesday. I’m not going to let it go. I want to know who’s paying for it. Who knew about it? Who benefits?”
Despite companies such as OpenAI putting in their best efforts to restrict and forbid the misuse of its technology for malicious purposes in this year’s election, there are still loopholes people can exploit. A spokesperson for Dean Phillips stated: “The potential use of AI to manipulate voters is deeply disturbing.”
Therefore, Robert Weissman, the Public Citizen president, has urged policymakers and lawmakers to take action as soon as possible. “The political deepfake moment is here. Policymakers must rush to put in place protections, or we’re facing electoral chaos. The New Hampshire deepfake is a reminder of the many ways that deepfakes can sow confusion and perpetuate fraud.”
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Joe Biden’s AI Robocalls May Only Be A Prelude to What’s to Come
Unfortunately, this AI robocalls Joe Biden incident may only be the beginning of many more AI-related incidents. Mekela Panditharatne, the senior counsel at the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, stated that while the apparent use of deepfake technology to keep people from voting in a U.S. presidential primary may be new, using robocalls to suppress votes isn’t.
“Historically, deceptive actors deployed robocalls to spread false information about how, when and where to vote in an attempt to trick people out of voting. Voice-generation AI potentially makes that method of attempted vote suppression more attractive to fraudsters.”
David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, also stated that the AI robocalls are a “canary in the coal mine for what we’re going to see throughout this election period. “It could very well be that this was not to help the campaign so much or to hurt President Biden but to be one of the first shots in 2024 to distrust our overall election system. It is because those pushing disinformation, whether they use AI or not, have an easier job than those pushing accurate information.”
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