Robocalls of President Biden confused voters earlier this month – but measures to curb the technology could be too little too late

Robocalls of President Biden already confused primary voters in New Hampshire – but measures to curb the technology could be too little too late

The AI election is here.

Already this year, a robocall generated using artificial intelligence targeted New Hampshire voters in the January primary, purporting to be President Joe Biden and telling them to stay home in what officials said could be the first attempt at using AI to interfere with a US election. The “deepfake” calls were linked to two Texas companies, Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom.

It’s not clear if the deepfake calls actually prevented voters from turning out, but that doesn’t really matter, said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice-president of Public Citizen, a group that’s been pushing for federal and state regulation of AI’s use in politics.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    381·
    9 months ago

    The answer to any article that asks, “is the U.S. prepared for ______,” is always no.

    This isn’t even a Betteridge’s Law situation. America never prepares for anything because all our leaders care about is running for office.

    • hglman@lemmy.world
      15·
      9 months ago

      Those lifetime appointments to the supreme court are really protecting that institution. /s

      The issue is much deeper than elections.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        13·
        9 months ago

        Very true. Even if someone with a true progressive agenda got elected (a what-if for Bernie in 2016), they would have the entire government against them, especially SCOTUS. I don’t know how a President Sanders could have gotten much of his agenda through even though I voted for him.

        • treefrog
          2·
          9 months ago

          In that specific instance, he would have had all the appointments Trump ended up with.

          In 2020 though he would have been fighting the same uphill battle Biden has been.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      9 months ago

      There’s a shitload of selection bias at play there. When we do prepare for something and actually successfully prevent it, your brain won’t remember it for you, unless you try really hard.

      So, it’s almost impossible to just figure out how well we prepare, using some kind of sniff test. Our human brains just royally suck at that specific kind of analysis.

      By way of example, Biden’s recent investment into port security. If a problem never occurs now, are you going to give him a point for that, or just never really consider it again?

      This is partly why the scientific method needs to be so strict, slow and rigorous to get anywhere.

    • blazeknave@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      And 4 years were spent breaking down lots of preparation that was already in place setting back decades.