The phone rings and it’s the president’s turn: Such so-called robocalls are a common election campaign tool in the USA. Only this call isn’t coming from the real Joe Biden.
Fake election campaign calls from US President Joe Biden are fueling fears of manipulation using artificial intelligence in the race for the White House. In the automated calls, a voice that sounded confusingly similar to Biden’s called on Democrats in New Hampshire not to take part in the primary election in the US state. Such so-called robocalls are a common election campaign tool in the USA. The sender information on the calls was also spoofed so that they appeared to come from a political committee of Biden’s Democratic Party, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said.
Software based on artificial intelligence can be trained to pronounce arbitrary sentences using the voices of specific people using sound recordings. Robocalls are an attractive target for such manipulations because they are difficult to monitor, said American political expert Ian Bremmer on the US broadcaster CNBC. It is also relatively easy online to spread false information to many people with the help of an “army of bots,” he warned.
There are also concerns about the possibility of using software to create targeted images – and now also short videos – with any content. Until now, errors have often been evident in the artificially generated images, but the technology is rapidly improving.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
