A man views a computer screen displaying the AI-crafted speech of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, to call for votes ahead of the general elections in Karachi, Pakistan, in early February 2024.
The British nonprofit used Midjourney, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Stability.ai's DreamStudio, and Microsoft's Image Creator for testing in February, simply tying in different text prompts related to the US elections. The group was able to bypass the tools’ protections a whopping 41% of the time.
Some of the images they created showed Donald Trump being taken away in handcuffs, Trump on a plane with alleged pedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and Joe Biden in a hospital bed.
Generative AI is already playing a tangible role in political campaigns, especially as voters go to the polls for national elections in 64 different countries this year. AI has been used to help a former prime minister get his message out from prison in Pakistan, to turn a hardened defense minister into a cuddly character in Indonesia, and to impersonate US President Biden in New Hampshire. Protections that fail nearly half the time just won’t cut it. With regulation lagging behind the pace of technology, AI companies have made voluntary commitments to prevent the creation and spread of election-related AI media.
“All of these tools are vulnerable to people attempting to generate images that could be used to support claims of a stolen election or could be used to discourage people from going to polling places," CCDH’s Callum Hood told the BBC. “If there is will on the part of the AI companies, they can introduce safeguards that work.”
There are 48 countries involved in this year’s World Cup, but that only tells part of the story of just how global the “global game” has become.
The World Cup is the planet's biggest sporting event, and the most political one. This year, it will also be the most profitable spectacle of all time.
Various groups march along Calzada de Tlalpan to the Estadio Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, on June 11, 2026.
Mexico cruised past South Africa 2-0 on Thursday in opening 2026 World Cup game at the majestic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Some Mexican citizens used the occasion to highlight issues that the country faces.
Cuba has faced severe fuel shortages since the US imposed a de facto blockade earlier this year, and the halted shipment could have powered the island for about 11 days.