Microsoft And OpenAI Establish A $2 Million Fund To Combat Election Deepfakes

A $2 million fund has been established by Microsoft and OpenAI to fight deepfakes and false AI content in response to the growing threat of misinformation produced by AI. The effort aims to maintain the integrity of global democracy. 

This year, two billion people will cast ballots in elections around the globe. Still, artificial intelligence (AI) tools have increased the prevalence of misinformation and the propagation of fake news, endangering democracy.

The Election Commission of India issued a warning to political parties on Monday to refrain from utilizing deepfakes and other similar disinformation in their internet campaigns leading up to the polls.

To help scholars spot fraudulent content produced by the DALL-E picture generator, OpenAI has published a deepfake detection tool. The business has joined Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Intel, and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) steering group in its fight against misinformation.

YouTube has made it possible to mark AI-generated material on its site using a flag tool, and Meta has begun to do the same with AI-generated photos.

Google even went so far as to prevent its AI chatbot, Gemini, from responding to questions about the 2024 election to prevent the spread of false information and to lessen the likelihood that users would share phony responses as authentic.

In light of this, all of the main tech firms, including Microsoft and OpenAI, have voluntarily committed to reducing these dangers and have announced intentions to develop a unified framework to deal with deepfakes that are specifically designed to deceive voters.

According to a blog post the firms released today, Microsoft and OpenAI are now working to “further AI education and literacy among voters and vulnerable communities,” which includes the new “societal resilience fund” as part of this larger drive for “responsible” AI. Grants would be given to a select group of organizations, such as Partnership on AI (PAI), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), Older Adults Technology Services (OATS), and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).

Microsoft claims that the goal of these funds is to improve society’s knowledge of artificial intelligence and its potential. For example, it appears that OATS will utilize the money to fund training programs addressing the “foundational aspects of AI” for Americans 50 years of age and older.