Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could be an “amplifier” of disinformation ahead of the upcoming election on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
“Well, look, I have to go back to my past,” Fontes said, according to a transcript. “And during boot camp and other military training I received in the Marine Corps, we looked at the weapons of our enemies, and trained against them as much as possible. AI is not a new weapon. It is an amplifier and a magnifying glass of mis- and disinformation.”
“What I wanted to do is make sure that our election officials were familiar with it, we had processes in place to deal with it and address it within each of our provinces because our elections are also conducted at the provincial level,” Fontes continued. . “We also had a tabletop exercise among various media election officials so that our media partners could know how to respond to it and recognize it.”
President Biden said in a post on social platform
“But first they have to earn our trust,” Biden continued. “I pledge to do everything in my power to promote and demand safe, secure, reliable and responsible innovation – including the use of AI-generated audio. I ask that AI companies join that commitment.”
In the same appearance on “Meet the Press,” Fontes also said the increasing threats to election officials are “domestic terrorism” and that he and other agencies are working to address the issue with law enforcement across the country.
“And I think back to what we were just talking about: one of the ways I’ve looked at this and addressed this is telling the really hard truth,” Fontes said.
“And that is this: threats against election officials in the United States of America are domestic terrorism,” he continued. “Terrorism is defined as a threat or violence aimed at a political outcome. That’s what this is.”
A poll from earlier this month found that nearly four in 10 election workers faced threats, intimidation or abuse on the job.
Updated at 8:24 a.m. EDT
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