Microsoft, Google, Meta, X and Others Pledge To Prevent AI Election Interference

Twenty tech companies working on AI said Friday they had signed a "pledge" to try to prevent their software from interfering in elections, including in the United States. From a report: The signatories range from tech giants such as Microsoft and Google to a small startup that allows people to make fake voices -- the kind of generative-AI product that could be abused in an election to create convincing deepfakes of a candidate. The accord is, in effect, a recognition that the companies' own products create a lot of risk in a year in which 4 billion people around the world are expected to vote in elections.

"Deceptive AI Election content can deceive the public in ways that jeopardize the integrity of electoral processes," the document reads. The accord is also a recognition that lawmakers around the world haven't responded very quickly to the swift advancements in generative AI, leaving the tech industry to explore self-regulation. "As society embraces the benefits of AI, we have a responsibility to help ensure these tools don't become weaponized in elections," Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, said in a statement. The 20 companies to sign the pledge are: Adobe, Amazon, Anthropic, Arm, ElevenLabs, Google, IBM, Inflection AI, LinkedIn, McAfee, Meta, Microsoft, Nota, OpenAI, Snap, Stability AI, TikTok, TrendMicro, Truepic and X.

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