Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Indian elections

Source-This post on Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Indian elections has been created based on the article “AI in elections, the good, the bad and the ugly” published in “The Hindu” on 1 April 2024.

UPSC Syllabus – GS Paper 2 – Salient Features of the Representation of People’s Act.

Context- The BJP has used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to translate the speech of Prime Minister into eight different languages ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. This general election may potentially be considered as India’s first AI election. Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Indian elections

How has India’s electoral strategy evolved over last 3 decades?

The electoral strategy has evolved due to the deployment of new technologies for electoral purposes.

1) Phone Calls-There was extensive usage of phone calls in the 1990s. Similarly, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in 2007 witnessed the first mass mobile phone elections.

2) Social media platforms– This was widely used in the 2014 general elections. Some analysts have even referred to it as India’s first social media elections or the Facebook elections. An estimated ₹500 crore had been spent in digital spending in 2014 elections.

3) WhatsApp election -2019 general election was widely dubbed as the “first WhatsApp election” in India. Few Indian States elections have shown that how WhatsApp can be abused to mislead voters for political purposes very quickly. As per election campaign consultant, it is an effective political platform because it is an excellent tool to organize and mobilize party workers.

Read more- Role of AI in elections: Many elections, AI’s dark dimension

How can the use of AI hamper the sanctity of the electoral process in 2024 elections?

The global elections of 2024 are indeed AI driven elections.They can significantly hamper the sanctity of electoral process by;

1) Misinformation – Voters in New Hampshire got a phone call that sounded like U.S. President. However, it was a robocall made by AI that discouraged Democratic voters from going to polling stations on election day.

2) Creation of fake audios – Just before parliamentary elections in Slovakia, in September 2023 last year, a fake audio of a conversation between a journalist and the leader of the pro-North Atlantic Treaty Organization Progressive Slovakia Party was shared on Facebook. Consequently, in a close race, Progressive Slovakia lost out.

3) Deepfakes-They were used in the recent Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, either through doctored clips of the game show “Kaun Banega Crorepati” or a fake video of a leader who was pushing voters to support their opponent.

4) Setting false trends-AI-powered bots can generate fake accounts that amplify messages and generate artificial trends to give the false impression that a particular politician or subject is widely supported.

How can AI play a constructive role in the election process?

It can play a far wider role in elections than just disseminating disinformation such as-

1) It can be used in the entire spectrum of campaign strategies. It can be used for voter identification and for content development and delivery.

2) It can do real-time analytics on campaign performances. It can ensure that political campaigns are data-driven and help in setting effective micro-targeting strategy.

The political landscape is changing quickly due to GenAI technology. This presents both the potential and challenges for the 2024 elections.

Question for practice

How has India’s electoral strategy evolved over last 3 decades? What will be the likely impact of AI on the sanctity of the electoral process in 2024 elections?