EC’s new rule: Political parties must flag all AI-generated campaign content for elections

EC’s new rule: Political parties must flag all AI-generated campaign content for elections

Artificial Intelligence-generated campaign content should have ‘AI-generated’, ‘digitally enhanced’ or ‘synthetic content’ labels, the Election Commission said on Thursday..

Amid an increase in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated campaign content, the Election Commission of India on Thursday wrote to the heads of all recognised national and state political parties asking them to label all such campaign material as “AI-generated/digitally enhanced/synthetic content”.

The Election Commission (EC) advisory comes at a time when campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections is on and parties have deployed AI tools to attack each other. In May last year, the EC had issued guidelines to parties during the Lok Sabha elections urging them to curb the use of “deep fakes” and distorted content.

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“However, now considering the deepening influence of AI generated/synthetic content in shaping public opinion, the Election Commission of India advises all political parties and their leaders, candidates and star campaigners to also take necessary measures for prominent labelling of AI-generated/synthetic content, if any, being shared for campaigning through their social media platforms and other media platforms. Prominent and easily discernible labelling of AI-generated content would ensure responsible and transparent campaigning and informed voters,” the EC wrote to the presidents, general secretaries and chairpersons of all national and state parties.