In the second episode of Techtonic, Chris Stokel-Walker talks to Eddie Perez, former Head of Election Integrity at Twitter, about the impact generative AI is likely to have on the 2024 US elections, and beyond.
Eddie Perez has spent more than three decades working on election integrity. Between September 2021 and November 2022, he worked as Head of Election Integrity at Twitter, where he oversaw the product team devoted to civic integrity, with a focus on elections. He sits on the Board of Directors of Open Source Election Technology Institute, a nonprofit focused on increasing confidence in elections and their outcomes.
Chris and Eddie discuss how the rise of generative AI led to the development of completely new tools used to produce and spread disinformation and manipulate voters at a scale and speed not seen before. Deepfakes, fabricated and synthesised audio or enhanced micro-targeting capabilities can be easily hijacked by bad actors. And yet, tech companies continue to produce AI tools at pace, without pausing to consider the consequences.
In 2024, elections will take place not only in the United States but in a number of crucial countries around the world, including India, Mexico, Venezuela, Egypt, South Africa and the United Kingdom as well as the European Parliament. Are our political systems, the media and Big Tech platforms ready for AI-powered elections?
Subscribe to Techtonic wherever you get your podcasts to hear new episodes, released fortnightly on Mondays.
***
Techtonic is ARTICLE 19’s brand new podcast series looking at freedom of expression online and the impact that Big Tech and social media have on our lives.
Leading tech reporter Chris Stokel-Walker speaks to experts around the world, including former insiders at Big Tech companies, digital rights activists, scholars and journalists. In Techtonic, we hear from those at the sharp end of artificial intelligence, deepfake technologies, internet shutdowns, and more.
Listen to the first podcast in the series, ‘AI’s English language problem’, a look at the language biases inherent in Artificial Intelligence technologies with guests Aliya Bhatia and Gabriel Nicholas from the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Techtonic is produced by Christopher Hooton and Nicola Kelly.