Female would-be MPs could be the victim of ‘deep-fake’ porn images created using AI at the next general election, the voting watchdog warned today.
Electoral commission chairman John Pullinger said that there had been a rise in the use of tech to make convincing pornographic images and videos showing politicians in compromising positions.
He cited the example of politicians in Northern Ireland being targeted and warned the use of such attacks ‘inevitably is going to be much more targeted towards female candidates’.
In 2022 the PSNI investigated after a video was put online purporting to show DUP NI assembly member Diane Forsyth acting in sex scenes, and sent to newspapers in an attempt to undermine her election campaign.
He also questioned the introduction of voter ID rules for elections, saying that Tory ministers were opening themselves up to accusations of gerrymandering because of the tight rules on what can be used for identification.
‘The photo ID requirement is clearly proving more of a barrier to some people than others,’ he said.
Electoral commission chairman John Pullinger said that there had been a rise in the use of tech to make convincing pornographic images and videos showing politicians in compromising positions.
In 2022 the PSNI investigated after a video was put online purporting to show DUP NI assembly member Diane Forsyth (right) acting in sex scenes, and sent to newspapers in an attempt to undermine her election campaign.
Speaking to the Financial Times Mr Pullinger said deepfake porn was at the ”extreme end of a level of nastiness’.
Last year a former Googler boss warned that elections are not safe from AI interference. Eric Schmidt, who ran the tech giant for a decade, said fake images and videos of every politician would likely flood the internet during campaigning.
This spread of AI-generated misinformation would drive the public ‘crazy’ as they wouldn’t be able to work out what was true, he predicted.
Medical advocacy and Outreach porn website the head of MI5 said deepfake technology could be harnessed by hostile states to sway the forthcoming general election.
Ken McCallum said he was concerned that the technology could be used to create ‘all kinds of dissension and chaos in our societies’.
The next general election is due to be the first at which voters have to show ID to cast their ballot.
But the change – brought in ostensibly to cut down on vote fraud – has been accused of making it harder for various marginalised groups to cast their votes. Some 22 forms of ID are allowed, but the choices have been criticised – with older people allowed to use railcars as identification, but younger people bared from doing so.
Mr Pullinger criticised the government for not accepting the Commission’s recommendation to widen the forms of allowable ID.
It found that at least 14,000 people were turned away at polling stations in May’s local elections because of the change. But it suggested ‘significantly more’ stayed away because of the new arrangements.
‘The proportion was significantly higher among disabled people, unemployed people and some other groups,’ Mr Pullinger told the FT.
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