A tsunami of AI misinformation will shape next year’s knife-edge elections | John Naughton

If you thought social media had a hand in getting Trump elected, watch what happens when you throw AI into the mix

It looks like 2024 will be a pivotal year for democracy. There are elections taking place all over the free world - in South Africa, Ghana, Tunisia, Mexico, India, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Moldova and Slovakia, to name just a few. And of course there's also the UK and the US. Of these, the last may be the most pivotal because: Donald Trump is a racing certainty to be the Republican candidate; a significant segment of the voting population seems to believe that the 2020 election was stolen"; and the Democrats are, well... underwhelming.

The consequences of a Trump victory would be epochal. It would mean the end (for the time being, at least) of the US experiment with democracy, because the people behind Trump have been assiduously making what the normally sober Economist describes as meticulous, ruthless preparations" for his second, vengeful term. The US would morph into an authoritarian state, Ukraine would be abandoned and US corporations unhindered in maximising shareholder value while incinerating the planet.