Can AI Steal Your Vote?

Dispatches • Season 38 • Episode 7

About this episode

Election campaigners and experts have warned that artificial intelligence tools could risk politically motivated disinformation flooding social media feeds in ways that recently seemed unimaginable. The fear is that deepfakes and other AI-generated material could influence votes. Cathy Newman reports on the issue, illustrating the effect that AI could have on 12 households of undecided voters. The homes are fed AI-generated material advised by political experts, with the residents none the wiser. Will the experiment succeed? If so, what does it say about the power of AI to influence the vote?