California-based OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, has announced the launch of tools to combat misinformation ahead of dozens of elections scheduled for this year in various countries where almost half of the world's population lives. The success of the ChatGPT app has popularized generative artificial intelligence but also raised concerns about its possible use in disinformation campaigns aimed at swaying voters' votes.
With dozens of elections scheduled for this year, particularly in the United States, India and Britain, OpenAI on Monday stressed its willingness not to allow the use of its technological tools, including ChatGPT and the DALL-E 3 image generator, for political purposes. "We want to be sure that our technology will not be used in a way that undermines" the democratic process, OpenAI said in a blog post. "We are still evaluating the potential effectiveness of our tools for individual persuasion. Until we know more, we won't allow people to build apps for political or activist campaigns," OpenAI adds.
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Fears of electoral misinformation
Disinformation -- false information spread intentionally -- and misinformation -- false information spread unintentionally -- using AI could "undermine the legitimacy of newly elected governments," the World Economic Forum warned last week, which runs until Jan. 19 in Davos, Switzerland. Fears of election disinformation date back several years, but the general public's access to powerful AI-based text and image generators greatly increases the threat, experts say.
OpenAI said Monday it is working on tools to reliably determine the provenance of ChatGPT-generated text and give users the ability to detect whether an image was created using DALL-E 3. "Earlier this year, we will be implementing the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity's digital credentials," the company said.
This coalition, known as C2PA, will include Microsoft, Sony, Adobe, Nikkon and Canon. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT, when asked about the U.S. election, will direct voters to recognized sites, for example. "The lessons learned from this work will form the basis of our approach for other countries and regions," the company says, adding that DALL-E 3 contains "guardrails" to prevent users from generating images of real people, including candidates. US giants Google and Meta already announced initiatives last year to regulate the use of AI in political campaigns.