According to a new report from Ginny Badanes of Microsoft’s Democracy Forward Initiative, two billion people will have the opportunity to vote in national elections over the next 14 months. So many elections in multiple consequential countries promise authoritarians who want to degrade democracy are gearing up to launch cyberattacks to destabilize and spread doubt in the free world.

And artificial intelligence makes the threat more severe than ever before. “We are in a moment where a new technology is emerging — generative AI — and there are a lot of concerns about what that is going to mean, particularly for information operations.”

She spoke with Tony Maciulis at the 2023 Paris Peace Forum, where GZERO also hosted a Global Stage event, Live from the Paris Peace Forum: Embracing technology to protect democracy.