The impact of artificial intelligence on elections is the theme of Caminhos da Reportagem

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on elections is the theme of the program Caminhos da Reportagem that will air this Monday (28), at 11:30 pm, on TV Brasil and on the public broadcaster's YouTube channel. The use of this technology is one of the focuses of attention of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which established rules for use in electoral advertisements.

Artificial intelligence is the ability of systems and machines to simulate human skills, such as learning, analyzing information, making decisions and generating responses. Currently, videos, audio and images generated by AI make it increasingly difficult to distinguish the real from the fabricated, while political campaigns, oversight bodies and digital platforms are in a race to keep up with all this digital transformation.

Although AI is not prohibited in elections, when it is used by candidates in audios, videos, texts and images, this must be clearly and prominently announced. Social media platforms that detect misinformation, so-called fake news, must remove this content immediately.

One of those interviewed by the Caminhos da Reportagem team is Sérgio Lüdtke, journalist and editor-in-chief of Comprova, a project of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji). He explains that attention, especially on social media, is very precarious. Because AI-produced content is typically fragmented and people don't have access to context, they can easily be misled.

"A piece of disinformation can change the outcome of an election. As it affects people's decisions, this can cause major problems for our democracy," he states.

Another source heard by the attraction was the writer and professor of electoral law Digital Diogo Rais. He draws attention to the responsibility of voters and states that it is common for supporters to create electoral content on their own.

"The question remains: can and should the Electoral Court monitor how it monitors candidates? The answer is that our legislation makes no distinction. The legislation ends up saying the following: whoever publishes the content is responsible for it", he recalls.

It is up to the Federal Police to investigate criminal content and its authors. According to the delegate from the PF Electoral Crimes Repression Division, Henrique Oliveira Santos, the biggest problem is with social media profiles of people who are not candidates and who imagine that the internet is a lawless environment.

"Which is not true, because we have investigative tools to find not only materiality, but also discover authorship", he reinforces.

Checking projects

Information checking and education projects are carried out across the country with the aim of informing people so that they are not manipulated. One example is Coar Notícias, a website created in Piauí to combat misinformation. This project gave rise to regional news checking manuals.

The first of them was the one from the Northeast, "Arriégua", and then manuals from other regions appeared. Caminhos da Reportagem also presents other initiatives that focus on digital education for children, teenagers and the elderly. Sesc in the Federal District, for example, offers digital literacy courses for the elderly.