The Role Of Generative Ai Use In 2024 Elections Worldwide

The Role of Generative AI Use in 2024 Elections Worldwide A high-level précis of the Technical Paper can be found in the Summary for Policymakers report, Generative AI in Electoral Campaigns: Mapping Global Patterns. GenAI is being deployed in many ways during elections, ranging from the creation of deepfake video and audio messages, to sophisticated voter targeting. What are the implications of GenAI for election administration and voter participation around the world? This assessment delivers the first global, data-driven analysis of its kind, designed to inform policy recommendations that enhance election administration, foster trust in electoral processes, and boost voter turnout. Based on an analysis of an original data set of 215 incidents, covering all 50 countries holding competitive national elections in 2024, we find that:

The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) is an independent and global science organization providing scientific knowledge about the health of the world's information environment. Based in Switzerland, the IPIE offers policymakers, industry, and civil society actionable scientific assessments about threats to the information environment, including AI bias, algorithmic manipulation, and disinformation. The IPIE is the only scientific body systematically organizing, evaluating, and elevating research with the broad aim of improving the global information environment. Hundreds of researchers worldwide contribute to the IPIE's reports. Citizens and politicians around the world last year used AI for misinformation, memes, and more. 2024 marked a big year for democracy, with elections held in over 70 countries representing nearly half the world’s population.

It was also dubbed the year of the “AI election” as experts warned of the havoc that AI-generated disinformation could wreak. In 2023, AI expert Oren Etzioni told Fortune, “I expect a tsunami of misinformation,” and journalist Maria Ressa said the world is facing a “tech-enabled Armageddon.” Leading tech companies even created the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections, citing concerns about how the “intentional and undisclosed generation and distribution of Deceptive AI Election content can... At the beginning of 2024, Rest of World set out to create an AI Elections Tracker with a goal of understanding the different ways that AI tools were being used, with a focus on... Throughout the year, reporters from across the world gathered unique and noteworthy instances of the ways that AI — primarily generative AI — was being used around elections. By the end of the year, the tracker included 60 entries from 15 countries.

The entries note the type of media created with AI, including text, image, audio, and video; the platform(s) the content was posted to and spread on; and the country in question. Rather than a comprehensive database, our AI Elections Tracker compiled a handpicked data set, which offered a glimpse into the myriad ways politicians and citizens used AI to create political content leading up to... Most of the posts we collected are concentrated in the first half of the year because that’s when unique use cases first emerged and when many major elections took place. The Brookings Institution, Washington District of Columbia Melanie W. Sisson, Colin Kahl, Sun Chenghao, Xiao Qian

Creating a healthy digital civic infrastructure ecosystem means not just deploying technology for the sake of efficiency, but thoughtfully designing tools built to enhance democratic engagement from connection to action. Last week’s leak of the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” drew intense reactions across academia. Critics call it government overreach threatening free expression, while supporters see a chance for reform and renewed trust between universities and policymakers. Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, director of the Democratic Knowledge Project and the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, weighs in. Amid rising illiberalism, Danielle Allen urges a new agenda to renew democracy by reorienting institutions, policymaking, and civil society around the intentional sharing of power.

Creating a healthy digital civic infrastructure ecosystem means not just deploying technology for the sake of efficiency, but thoughtfully designing tools built to enhance democratic engagement from connection to action. Public engagement has long been too time-consuming and costly for governments to sustain, but AI offers tools to make participation more systematic and impactful. Our new Reboot Democracy Workshop Series replaces lectures with hands-on sessions that teach the practical “how-to’s” of AI-enhanced engagement. Together with leading practitioners and partners at InnovateUS and the Allen Lab at Harvard, we’ll explore how AI can help institutions tap the collective intelligence of our communities more efficiently and effectively. Generative AI (GenAI) has emerged as a transformative force in elections playing out across the world. In a series of reports, the Center for Media Engagement investigates GenAI’s role before, during, and after several key global elections in 2024.

The reports examine the potential impacts of GenAI on key democratic processes in the U.S., Europe, India, Mexico, and South Africa. These insights are critical to groups working to sustain and advance democracies in the face of constant transformation of the digital environment and associated communication processes. Below we share the emerging trends developing around elections and AI in each of these regions. To view the region’s report in full, click on the link in the title. The U.S.: GenAI, Disinformation, and Data Rights in U.S. Elections

Europe: Political Deepfakes and Misleading Chatbots – Understanding the Use of GenAI in Recent European Elections GenAI is rewriting the rules of electioneering, turning campaigns into hyper-targeted, multilingual persuasion machines that blur the line between outreach and manipulation The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) into election campaigns has redefined the very architecture of political communication and persuasion. As AI becomes deeply intertwined with the campaign process, its role extends beyond strategy to shaping voter perceptions. It is introducing unprecedented precision, scale, and personalisation in how campaigns engage with voters and influence public opinion across digital platforms. The emergence of Gen AI has heralded unprecedented changes in campaign-to-voter communication within contemporary electoral politics.

As detailed by Florian Foos (2024), Gen AI offers significant opportunities to reduce costs in modern campaigns by assisting with the drafting of campaign communications, such as emails and text messages. A primary use case for this transformation is the capacity of multilingual AI systems to facilitate direct, dynamic exchanges with voters across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The Bhashini initiative, first introduced in India on 18 December 2023, is a prime example of this use case. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi used this tool on this date during his address at Kashi Tamil Sangamam in Varanasi to translate his speech to Tamil live. With the integration of AI-driven communication tools, campaigns can now fundamentally alter conventional interaction paradigms, moving from broad mass messaging toward more personal, innovative, and highly targeted forms of digital outreach. The emergence of Gen AI has heralded unprecedented changes in campaign-to-voter communication within contemporary electoral politics.

The disruptive potential of AI in this domain is significantly amplified when campaigners can access individual-level personal contact data. AI-powered messaging tools can generate and deliver personalised content at scale, raising the possibility of both positive engagement and concerning intrusions into voter privacy. Notable examples from recent electoral practice include the widespread use of AI-generated fundraising emails in United States campaigns, as well as the deployment of AI-generated videos of political candidates in India making highly tailored... These instances underscore the increasing prevalence and sophistication of dynamic, digital conversations between campaigns and their target electorate. There is great public concern about the potential use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for political persuasion and the resulting impacts on elections and democracy1,2,3,4,5,6. We inform these concerns using pre-registered experiments to assess the ability of large language models to influence voter attitudes.

In the context of the 2024 US presidential election, the 2025 Canadian federal election and the 2025 Polish presidential election, we assigned participants randomly to have a conversation with an AI model that advocated... We observed significant treatment effects on candidate preference that are larger than typically observed from traditional video advertisements7,8,9. We also document large persuasion effects on Massachusetts residents’ support for a ballot measure legalizing psychedelics. Examining the persuasion strategies9 used by the models indicates that they persuade with relevant facts and evidence, rather than using sophisticated psychological persuasion techniques. Not all facts and evidence presented, however, were accurate; across all three countries, the AI models advocating for candidates on the political right made more inaccurate claims. Together, these findings highlight the potential for AI to influence voters and the important role it might play in future elections.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription Receive 51 print issues and online access 2024 is a landmark election year, with over 60 countries—encompassing nearly half of the global population—heading to the polls. Technology has long been used in electoral processes, such as e-voting, and it is a valuable tool in making this process efficient and secure.

However, recent advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI such as ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Copilot (Microsoft), could have an unprecedented impact on the electoral process. These digital innovations offer opportunities to improve electoral efficiency and voter engagement, but also raise concerns about potential misuse. AI can be used to harness big data to influence voter decision-making. Its capacity for launching cyberattacks, producing deepfakes, and spreading disinformation could destabilize democratic processes, threaten the integrity of political discourse, and erode public trust. UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted AI’s dual nature in his address to the Security Council, noting that while AI can accelerate human development, it also poses significant risks if used maliciously. He stated, “The advent of generative AI could be a defining moment for disinformation and hate speech—undermining truth, facts, and safety, adding a new dimension to the manipulation of human behaviour and contributing to...

In this article, we will briefly explore the benefits and challenges that AI is bringing to the electoral process. According to UNESCO’s Guide for Electoral Practitioners: “Elections in Digital Times,” AI has the potential to improve the efficiency and accuracy of elections. It reaches out to voters and engages with them more directly through personalised communication tailored to individual preferences and behaviour. AI-powered chatbots can provide real-time information about polling locations, candidate platforms, and voting procedures, making the electoral process more accessible and transparent. AI Chatbots Are Shockingly Good at Political Persuasion Chatbots can measurably sway voters’ choices, new research shows.

The findings raise urgent questions about AI’s role in future elections By Deni Ellis Béchard edited by Claire Cameron Stickers sit on a table during in-person absentee voting on November 01, 2024 in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Election day is Tuesday November 5. Forget door knocks and phone banks—chatbots could be the future of persuasive political campaigns.

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