A state representative was the victim of a recent artificial intelligence scheme during an important political vote. Now the question is raised: How will artificial intelligence play a role in state and national elections?

History of Artificial Intelligence

“Deepfakes actually began back in the late twenty teens, in 2019 or so, there were still deepfake porn sites and things like that, they weren't of the quality we have today,” said Collin Walke, who leads Hall Estill's Cybersecurity & Data Privacy practice.

Evolution of Artificial Intelligence

“It's much easier to create deepfakes that are quite believable now. For example, while it used to take 30 seconds or a minute of your voice to manipulate it and create something new, now I only need one or two seconds of your voice to create something new,” said Walke. “It’s the biggest problem that we have in battling AI. It used to be a picture or it didn't happen, and in today's world it's a picture and it didn't happen.”

Human Vs. Bot created Artificial Intelligence

“Deepfakes and AI slop that's created by AI bots are able to just inundate us with fake news, fake information, fake stories,” said Walke.  

“Tracking the source can be very difficult because you don't know how that video got released. For example, you could create the video, put it on a thumb drive, and hand it off to somebody else, and eventually there's a high likelihood that they wouldn't be able to figure out where that came from at the end of the day,” said Walke.  

State lawmaker falls victim to AI scheme

As state democrats were looking at electing a new leader of the state democratic party, a video surfaced of what seemed to be a state representative making racist remarks about other state leaders. 

But that video was fake, created by AI, impersonating State Rep. John Waldron’s voice. 

“This deepfake is an unfortunate sign of the times. We need stronger laws protecting our election systems from this kind of malicious misinformation, and citizens need to develop the media literacy skills necessary to recognize truth from deliberate distortion.” - State Rep. John Waldron (D), Tulsa.

Recommendations for politicians in a new AI world  

“As to public figures, I think it's extremely important that they're open and honest and transparent about all of their communications. We know that, especially in the political world, politicians often say one thing and do another,” said Walke.  

“In today's world, it's that much more important to always be consistent with your messaging, so that if an event comes up like this, you can say: there's clearly no way I would have ever said these words,” said Walke. 

Recommendations for the public in a new AI world

“On the private side, for individuals themselves, it's extremely important that you become skeptical of the voicemails and texts that you receive. When it comes to politics, maybe take a second and ask yourself the question: "If this were on the other side, and it was an allegation about the party that I am a part of, would I still believe it?” Walke questioned. 

“It's so easy for us to approve of and in fact encourage bad actors on the other party, but if you're seeing something new for the first time and you ask yourself: well, what if that were about my party, you might have a little more of a skeptical approach.”  

What’s next for Artificial Intelligence? 

“Like electricity literally changed everything about the world, so is AI. That means that we're going to have to develop a new set of ethics for how we deal with what we see on the internet. I hope it leads to a cultural shift to be quite frank, but I think that's gonna be a painful process,” said Walke. 

“AI is truly gonna change the world,” said Walke.