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The rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence (AI),
which can create text, images and video in seconds in response
to prompts, has heightened fears that the new technology could
be used to sway major elections this year, as more than half of
the world's population is set to head to the polls.
Signatories of the tech accord, which was announced at the
Munich Security Conference, include companies that are building
generative AI models used to create content, including OpenAI,
Microsoft and Adobe. Other signatories include social media
platforms that will face the challenge of keeping harmful
content off their sites, such as Meta Platforms, TikTok and X,
formerly known as Twitter.
The agreement includes commitments to collaborate on developing
tools for detecting misleading AI-generated images, video and
audio, creating public awareness campaigns to educate voters on
deceptive content and taking action on such content on their
services.
Technology to identify AI-generated content or certify its
origin could include watermarking or embedding metadata, the
companies said.
The accord did not specify a timeline for meeting the
commitments or how each company would implement them.
“I think the utility of this (accord) is the breadth of the
companies signing up to it,” said Nick Clegg, president of
global affairs at Meta Platforms.
“It’s all good and well if individual platforms develop new
policies of detection, provenance, labeling, watermarking and so
on, but unless there is a wider commitment to do so in a shared
interoperable way, we’re going to be stuck with a hodgepodge of
different commitments,” Clegg said.
Generative AI is already being used to influence politics and
even convince people not to vote.
In January, a robocall using fake audio of U.S. President Joe
Biden circulated to New Hampshire voters, urging them to stay
home during the state's presidential primary election.
Despite the popularity of text-generation tools like OpenAI's
ChatGPT, the tech companies will focus on preventing harmful
effects of AI photos, videos and audio, partly because people
tend to have more skepticism with text, said Dana Rao, Adobe's
chief trust officer, in an interview.
"There's an emotional connection to audio, video and images," he
said. "Your brain is wired to believe that kind of media."
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas and Katie Paul in New York;
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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