And we’ll show you two ways to help. Together, we can be a voice for change and protect Michigan’s land, air, water, public health, and democracy.
November 8th, 2023
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Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson represented the nation’s secretaries of state at a federal forum on A.I. Insight on Democracy and Elections. She presented the risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in elections and the need for funding at the state and federal levels to address them.
Artificial intelligence is a technology used to collect and generate information, including visual, audio, and video content. It can be a helpful tool in finding and compiling information quickly. A.I. also has the potential to negatively influence elections and voters by spreading misinformation on the candidates, voting information and locations, and purging voter rolls by challenging voter registrations. Secretary Benson focused on five ways A.I. could impact elections: (1) the ability to create and spread disinformation in hyper-targeted areas, (2) targeting populations of voters with misinformation in multiple languages, (3) increase harassment of election officials and poll workers, (4) target and challenge more voter registrations to invalidate their ballot, (5) increase in cyber attacks of voting and election systems.
In October 2023, Secretary Benson supported House bills 5141, 5143, 5144, and 5145 in the Michigan Legislature to prohibit A.I. use in campaign advertisements and communications without a disclosure of A.I. use clearly stated in the same material. These bills are now public acts in Michigan.
Michigan LCV supports Secretary Benson in her efforts to protect voters from misinformation and advocate for the harm artificial intelligence could have on fair elections.