How worried should you be about AI disrupting elections?
Disinformation will become easier to produce, but it matters less than you might think
Politics is SUPPOSED to be about persuasion; but it has always been stalked by propaganda. Campaigners dissemble, exaggerate and fib. They transmit lies, ranging from bald-faced to white, through whatever means are available. Anti-vaccine conspiracies were once propagated through pamphlets instead of podcasts. A century before covid-19, anti-maskers in the era of Spanish flu waged a disinformation campaign. They sent fake messages from the surgeon-general via telegram (the wires, not the smartphone app). Because people are not angels, elections have never been free from falsehoods and mistaken beliefs.
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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “AI voted”
From the September 2nd 2023 edition
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