Artificial intelligence is coming for you at the ballot box, and it is not just videos anymore. I’ve given up warning the world about AI because apparently The Matrix, the Terminator movies, and Ex Machina made technology wars look fun. (I mean, who doesn’t love a robot automatically going into a fighting stance and trying to battle you because you pushed it? And if an AI robot could do that for being pushed, imagine what your computer would do to you every time you slammed it closed out of frustration.)
Jokes aside, we need to take a serious look at reporting on AI during election season.
A local Long Island outlet had its first taste of what election seasons could look like for this year’s midterms and beyond, but it reported on it just a little too late.
The village of Garden City (located on Long Island, NY — and yes, grammar police, it is ON Long Island, not IN) holds its mayoral elections in March before national midterm elections. The village of roughly 25,000 people sees about one-third of its total population turn out for elections… and it is always a heated one.
Why the Building Matters
Garden City, like every posh and affluent suburb of New York City, has an old, dilapidated former boarding school building that will take hundreds of millions of dollars to save, which the village (with a AAA credit rating) does not have. But still, they throw their tax dollars at a building that is falling down and hope someone comes up with a solution to save it.
This has been going on since the village purchased the building in 1984. I have seen literal fistfights break out in local establishments because this is a local topic that gets so heated and evokes visceral emotions from people who want to knock it down or save it.
Every election, candidates offer their ideas for the building (it’s typically save it vs. knock it down), and then nothing gets done. The town is throwing millions of dollars every year to “save” a building that could have been saved 40 years ago, but now, sadly, it just can’t be.
Turn to this year’s election. The “knock it down” candidate was leading in the polls, hopefully bringing an end to this local debate. And then AI struck!
Enter AI
Days before the election, a fake website was made, along with AI videos claiming the “knock it down” candidates wanted to put affordable housing where this building is. This town might not be racist, but it is most definitely classist (racism’s cousin, which is more popular and common than we in the media like to admit).
The AI videos made people question, but the AI website with the candidates’ names and photos on it was a nail in the coffin for what could have been a very different election result.
The local newspaper (the Garden City News) did a very thorough job reporting on the AI scandal, posting photos and a screen recording of the website and getting comments from both sides of the political aisle, as well as from the AI creator who spread the false information.
However, the paper failed to report on it before the election — if you are interested, here is a link to the reporting.
The Broader Effect of AI in Elections
Now, I know this all sounds benign and like a whole bunch of local hoopla, so let’s distill it down to three points.
- AI was used in an election to lie to voters and garner votes for one political side.
- Media outlets failed to report on the use of AI until after the election. (Cue Trump voice: “We have no evidence of collusion at this time.”)
- People are questioning the election results and the legitimacy of the election. (Trump voice again: “It was a stolen election, totally stolen.”)
On a broader scale, this can have a massive effect on the future of elections. A new study from the Harvard Kennedy School predicts that 2028 “will mark the start of a seismic and generational shift in U.S. politics as campaigns fully embrace the rapidly escalating power of AI.”
What better testing ground for 2028 than this year’s midterm elections? Remember, it was only six short years ago that we saw a similar situation play out in 2020 with the Hunter Biden laptop. Except it was the truth, and the media LIED to the American public, calling it “fake” and “AI.”
How to Prepare as a Reporter
Fake AI, meet your evil twin: real AI. And it’s only getting started. So here is how to prepare to be the best reporter you can be in this “new news world,” where your reports are competing with AI that is infringing on your copyrighted material.
- Verify information with real sources — PR people are your first defense. Sure, in the political world, campaign managers and communications directors are there to make their candidate look good, but if they are good at their job, they will always be honest ON BACKGROUND.
- Use AI to detect AI — there are so many tools out there, and they are free. I hate AI, but for websites it’s ok
- Be on guard — AI is getting more difficult to identify and more prevalent, so question everything.
- Use discernment — yeah, I know being on guard and questioning everything is a synonym of discernment, but more specifically, I’m saying question your discernment. The last part of the scientific method, which they don’t teach third graders anymore, is to question the science. Find out if the results you have are replicable. If you are finding more and more legit photos of Hunter Biden doing cocaine off of a stripper’s body parts, it’s real. The laptop is not a lie… unlike the cake, which is not just a lie, it’s AI.
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