Tech giants ink pact on AI deepfakes

Companies commit to detecting deceptive content that trick voters during polls

MUNICH: Major technology companies signed a pact to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.

Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Openai and Tiktok gathered at the Munich Security Conference on Friday to announce a new framework for how they respond to Ai-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters.

Twelve other companies, including Elon Musk’s X, are also signing on to the accord.

“Everybody recognises that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.

The accord is largely symbolic but targets increasingly realistic Ai-generated images, audio and video “that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote”.

The companies are not committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms.

It noted that the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.

The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies.

But disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.

“The language isn’t quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan

Policy Centre.

“I think we should give credit where credit is due and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections.

“That said, it is voluntary, and we’ll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”

Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies”.

“This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody,” he said.

“And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug, trying to play whacka-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”

Several political leaders from Europe and the United States also joined Friday’s announcement.

European Commission Vicepresident Vera Jourova said while such an agreement cannot be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements”.

She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility in not using AI tools deceptively and warned that Ai-fuelled disinformation could bring about “the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states”.

The agreement at the German city’s annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024.