AI misuse alarms voters amid General Elections in India

In India, the election has already begun. While polling for two phases have been completed, people will exercise their franchise in five more phases. 

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised over the possible misuse of AI during the ongoing elections. 

According to the cyber security company McAfee, around 75 percent of Indians have come across deepfake content related to politics.

Most are worried about the potential misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in creating deepfakes.

About 44 percent are concerned about fake videos impersonating public figures, 37 percent worry about these videos undermining public trust in media, and 31 percent fear they could influence elections.

McAfee's Director of Engineering, Pratim Mukherjee, highlighted a significant rise in cases of deepfake content involving both public and private figures in India. The easy manipulation of voices and visuals by AI raises serious questions about the authenticity of content, especially during such an important election year.

The report by McAfee also identifies various troubling uses of deepfakes, including cyberbullying 55 percent, creating fake pornographic content 52 percent, facilitating scams 49 percent, and more.

Additionally, 64 percent of respondents stated that AI has made it more difficult for them to recognise online scams.

The report revealed that 57 percent of people encountered a video, image, or recording of a celebrity and thought it was genuine, leading to 31 percent falling victim to a scam.

Earlier, Microsoft warned India about China's intentions to create and spread AI-generated content to serve its own interests during the ongoing elections, which started on April 19.

In response, the Indian government has urged global digital companies to address the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence during elections.