UK computer science expert files warning over AI threat to democracy during elections

Source: Sputniknews 16.6.2023

Rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) could pose a threat to democracy during the upcoming presidential election in the US and parliamentary elections in the UK, Dame Wendy Hall, a member of the UK government's AI Council, said on Thursday.

"Next year, we will see a growth in disinformation, the deep fakes of this world, because AI makes it very easy to do that," she said in an interview with a UK broadcaster.

"We've got two major elections coming up next year — the US, UK — and the EU have got elections as well. I see this as a threat to democracy. In a sense that we've got to help people understand where they're getting the messages from."

Hall pointed out that the risk AI could pose today is more important than "worrying about an existential threat in a hundred years' time," which, in her opinion, is a possibility, but very unlikely at the moment.

"I'm glad we're taking a lead that we need to think about global regulation in the area of AI in the same way as we think about climate science," she said.

The expert added that, despite all the risks, AI technologies could also help politicians make information briefs as they "often talk about things they don't know anything about."

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's administration said earlier this year that the first global AI summit is set to take place in the UK this autumn to discuss the potential risks of AI and ways to overcome them.