As we march through the pivotal election year of 2024, a formidable shadow looms over the democratic process. This shadow is not cast by a person or an institution, but by a technology: Artificial Intelligence (AI). Once celebrated as a beacon of innovation, AI now stands accused of distorting the very fabric of truth, particularly in the political arena.

The technology juggernaut, OpenAI, is making waves with its GPT-3 model, a highly advanced language processing tool known as ChatGPT. This AI-powered tool is so powerful and convincing that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for most people to discern AI-generated content from human-generated content, including instances of misinformation or ‘fake news’

Generally, our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced heavily by the information we consume. This information can be discovered by us, it can be presented to us, or we can consume it passively. When was the last time that you didn’t weigh the pros and cons of a major decision?

Facebook has taken out a full-page “Tips for Spotting False News” ad in British newspapers, telling people how to spot and avoid fake news ahead of the UK general election. Facebook has also been deleting tens of thousands of fake Facebook accounts that were created solely to spew false news stories, particularly ahead of elections. In fact, Facebook has said that ahead of this week’s election in France, they removed more than 30,000 accounts that were spreading fake news stories that could have (and were likely intended to) influence that election.