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Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and others agree to combat election-related deepfakes

A coalition of 20 tech companies signed an agreement Friday to help prevent AI deepfakes in the critical 2024 elections. OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon, Adobe and X are among the businesses signing the agreement to prevent and combat AI-generated content that could influence voters.

“We’re committed to protecting the integrity of elections by enforcing policies that prevent abuse and improving transparency around AI-generated content,” Anna Makanju, Vice President of Global Affairs at OpenAI, wrote in the group’s joint press release. Only Apple is absent among Silicon Valley’s “Big Five.” However, that may be explained by the fact that the iPhone maker hasn’t yet launched any generative AI products, nor does it host a social media platform where deepfakes could be distributed. Although the general principles the 20 companies agreed to sound like a promising start, it remains to be seen whether a loose set of agreements without binding enforcement will be enough to combat a nightmare scenario where the world’s bad actors use generative AI to sway public opinion and elect aggressively anti-democratic candidates — in the US and elsewhere.

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