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FIANNA FÁIL POLITICIANS have warned of the threat of deepfakes as they called for the Electoral Commission to create a strategy to tackle the misuse of artificial intelligence in political campaigning.
Deepfakes are digitally manipulated images, video and audio that are designed to create fake material featuring the likeness of an individual, often to misrepresent their views or speech.
Senator Malcolm Byrne will table the motion which also calls for a national awareness campaign on AI and technological change.
Byrne, who is the party spokesman on higher education, innovation and science, said while AI has “plenty of positives”, the technology also brings challenges.
“One of our biggest concerns is around the potential impact of the misuse of AI through misinformation, disinformation, and particularly deepfakes on elections and referenda.”
He said deepfakes had been used in recent elections in Slovakia and Argentina.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Byrne further hypothesised that a deepfake of an Irish political leader saying something controversial could emerge during upcoming elections.
“The difficulty is once a video comes out and they’re sufficiently believable, it can be shared on social media thousands of times, and even when the denial is then published, you will still have people who will say: ‘Oh well, look, you know, this wasn’t a deepfake, this was really what he or she actually believed’.
“And you can imagine, you know, the crucial days before an election or indeed in a referendum, how something like that could have an impact.”
Byrne accepted that disinformation and misinformation had been factors in previous elections but said deepfakes had “turbocharged” the threat.
The Government has established an AI Advisory Council, appointed of an AI Ambassador and plans to establish an AI cluster to support enterprise development in the sector.
“We also believe within the Oireachtas there is a need to set up a special committee to look at artificial intelligence and explore its impacts right across all areas of society.”
He said the education system also needs to change due to opportunities that AI present.
Byrne added: “The most important piece of legislation that the European Union will enact this decade is the AI Act and it’s critical, we believe, that that takes a people-centred approach, that it focuses on a risk-based approach that minimises the risk, that it places serious obligations on the tech companies to ensure that they assess the potential risks of rolling out AI in any area.”
Senator Lisa Chambers said technology companies have a responsibility to protect users from the misuse of AI.
“Yes, we intend to regulate that sector and yes, we intend to legislate and to ensure that there’s protections. They don’t need to wait for that to do the right thing. There is a moral and an ethical responsibility on the part of social media companies to protect their users and to ensure that they don’t infringe on the integrity of our electoral process.
“They have tools to do that. They don’t need to wait for the regulation.”
Byrne, who said he did not think Fianna Fáil had used generative AI to create public-facing material, said his party would pledge not to “misuse” the technology.
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The worst disinformation at election time I’ve ever seen was when Leo promised to abolish USC.
@irishsaverandinvestor: I seem to see deepfakes of him promising this and that on the daily too, acting as if he isn’t currently in control of government and the one able to implement these changes.
@irishsaverandinvestor: Wait till you see all the sf empty promises fall by the wayside and them blaming everyone else for it…..and the sf digital army lapping it up and believing it.
@irishsaverandinvestor: or when he promised to look after those who get up and go out to work
@irishsaverandinvestor: Tell me I have no clue about Irish politics and that Irish parties say if they are in power on their own in one comment.
@Daniel Roche: You have no clue how to make a coherent comment.
@F2yxfluD: okay let’s debate so my friend.
@F2yxfluD: Mick my friend,I’m Daniel Roche and happy to have a chat,as you said I’m clueless,you can easily debate me
@John Terry:
Like Coveney and Murphy and Stumpy O’Brien’s laughable promises to not ready mix and fix the housing crisis for their vulture benefactor golf buddies etc!
@John Terry: None of that has happened so your opinion is speculation. Leo made definite promises with beautiful soundbites about how he was gonna help “the early riser”… well he’s hindered those people more than helping them, not saying SF doesn’t do the same, but until they do you’re argument is made up.
@John Terry: So the same as the other shower and their lot except untested?
@irishsaverandinvestor: what about when Enda said and I quote “ it is immoral to tax a persons home” & then he goes and taxes a persons home!
I remember Pat Rabitte admitting that Labour lied to the population in the 2011 election.
@edward smith: No he said if labour was on their own like every party,the election promises from every party is if they are a one party government
Fianna fail are a danger to every person on this island
@Paul Kavanagh: and especially from malcolm Byrne if your a woman, or do we not talk about that anymore? Google is your friend.
@Michael o connor: he was rejected by the people of Wexford in both the european and general elections. He has no mandate and no support. He shouldn’t be a spokesman for anything. As with all the other FFG rejects, he ends up in the Seanad. And after that ‘incident’, he refused to resign as a student officer. Pure neck.
@Paul Kavanagh: how? From what I hear is Sinn Fein are going to destroy planet earth and everyone in it, fianna gael have fixed the economy and the opposition are opposed to living a good life!
@Michael o connor: That axe must be quite sharp now, step away from the grinder.
Election time is always “deep fake” time.
@Pato: It is. I saw a deep fake of Micheal Martin saying he was removing the triple lock and eroding our neutrality. It was very realistic.
Fianna Fail owned and controlled by Israel
@Kevin O Brien: would that be like SF supporting Hamas terrorism
@Thomas Sheridan: Or Martin pointing at a hole in the ceiling of a house in the terrorist state of Israel…Amazing how Martin failed to go and see the destruction in Gaza. Photo opps in war zones seems to be Martin’s new election strategy. From a safe distance of course.
@Thomas Sheridan: Israel were the main Original supporters of Hamas Tomas
It’s not the misrepresentation of FF statements that FF should be worried about at election time. It’s their actual statements on their policies that will damage them
@Sean: Every party lies, every party promise something if they are elected as one party government,like this is common practice,how is everyone confused like.
What about the thousands of fake accounts used by the government and funded by tax payers money?
@Thomas Reddy: The journal is infested with them
@Peter Murray: And yet here you are all day every day.
I’d rather listen to the deep fakes than the real fakes
So what they don’t want them to tell the truth
Another snake-oil salesman. Jog on.
Was Leo’s snog deepfake?? I was wondering why the media never covered it
@Shane Doyle: Plick
@Mise Freisin: planker
@Peter Murray: did you learn that “othering” technique at your mammy’s knee?
The People are awake like never before and that’s what FFG fear the most the door mat day’s are over and so are they after the next election
Imagine a Fianna Fail politician saying something controversial at election time?
@Peter Murray: imagine you never trolling
They’re so hip to the tech. Cool.
Just caught a glimpse of election and fake. must be an article about the FF and FG election manifestos. Get rid of USC, build 120,000 homes in three years…..
I sad to say but deepfake doesn’t mater when it comes to FFG government parties. They’ve screwed the people by taxing us into nonexistence so no matter what the people won’t be voting for them in the next election.
Fianna Fáil ISnotRAEL supporter of Apartheid and Occupation, They just support bombing innocent people.
If you’re seeing these deepfakes & believing what you see & hear from them, then you need your eyes & ears checked. Not one of them are passable under minimal scrutiny.
We need to be even more on our guard against those who are trying to manufacture a case for censorship of views they find unpalitable by exaggerating the threat of misinformation and AI technology.
This week we have seen a report published by a far-left US NGO which has made it obvious that the extreme left considers both opinion and facts it finds unpalatible as “misinformation.The Journal seems to have taken a similar stance in relation to its comment on the threatened “hate speech” legislation.
For the record: Opinion – irrespective of how much you disagree with it – is not “misinformation”. And facts – irrispective of how much you would prefer they were not revealed or published – is not “misinformation”. Untruths, published as fact, are “misinformation”.
Serious debate on AI and robust legislation is needed fast. We are being led down a very dark future here.
Same thing.
Fianna fail blocked the Stardust enquiry for 40 yrs to protect the owners who were big Fianna fail people
I wish the stuff they said was deepfake, then at least it would have some justification
all Politicians lie. Don’t fool yourself.
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