Fake, AI-generated content  a ‘major threat’ this coming elections — DICT

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) warned the public that there will be a significant increase in fake, manipulated media content in the nearing mid-term elections, saying that AI has made it “easier” to create and spread deceptive content.

During the second day of the Singapore International Cyber Week 2024, DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said that the country has seen proliferation of fake news in the previous elections, and he believes that AI will make it even a larger threat today.

“I think Comelec is in the right direction in saying that they would like to ban AI-generated content, specifically against candidates this coming elections,” Dy told PhilSTAR Tech.

Last May, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Garcia wrote a letter to the commission en banc to disallow candidates to use AI in the duration of their campaigns, citing the similar reason of AI being used to spread deceitful information.

Moreover, Dy said that the Philippines can learn from the Singapore’s lawmakers in trying to pass a law that will ban AI-generated content focusing on candidates during elections.

The bill is called The Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment), which if signed into law will prohibit publication of AI-generated or manipulated content that depicts a candidate saying or doing something that is not true.

The boosting and sharing of those kind of content will also be found as an offense.

Having a similar type of prohibition on AI during election season would help the Philippines deal with this “technical problem,” Dy said.

In the meantime, Dy revealed that the DICT will be launching a campaign that will promote verified account in social media, especially verified media outfits on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.

Additionally, the DICT will also be seeking help from the public through a launch of a community reporting on misinformation and disinformation campaign.

Social media users may report posts that they think needs more context, and the social media platforms may tag the post as “misinformation” or “lacking context.”

Removal of these posts cannot be done yet as the country does not have a law on the regulation of social media platforms.

“You don’t have to go through us. Let’s all do the reporting. It becomes our social responsibility,” Dy said.

Just recently, the DICT reported that to be working with AI providers such as OpenAI, ChatGPT, and Google, in purging AI deep fakes for the upcoming elections.