Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is a type of artificial intelligence that can create a new content such as text, images and videos. It is still under development but it has the potential to be used for variety of purposes including generating and writing different kinds of creative content.
However. GAI has also potential to be used for harmful purposes such as creating fake news and propaganda. Without regulation GAI could be used to under democracy in number of ways including
- Spreading fake news: GAI could be used to create fake news articles, social media posts and misinformation that could mislead people for example in the US an AI generated image of pentagon burning spooked equity markets.
- Targeting voters with propaganda: GAI could be used to target voters with personalised propaganda that is designed to influence their voting behaviour for example Cambridge Analytica case, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent. Predominantly to be used for political advertising.
- Undermining the trust in institutions: GAI could be used to undermine trust in institutions such as media and government by spreading disinformation about them for example in China the government has used AI enabled surveillance to track and monitor its citizens. This has been used to supress the dissent and target political opponents.
- AI poured disinformation campaign: in Myanmar the military has used AI poured propaganda to justify its crackdown on the Rohingya minority. This has included creating videos that depict the Rohingya as terrorist and criminals.
- AI enabled censorship: in the UAE the government has used AI poured censorship to block the website and social media platform that are critical of the government. This has made it difficult for citizens to express their opinion freely.