A group of leading experts in artificial intelligence and online misinformation has warned that political leaders could soon deploy swarms of human-imitating AI agents to manipulate public opinion, posing a serious threat to democracy. The warning, published in the journal Science, comes from a consortium including Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa and researchers from Berkeley, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Yale.
The experts caution that malicious 'AI swarms' could infiltrate social media and messaging platforms, autonomously coordinating to fabricate consensus and undermine electoral processes. They predict such technology could be deployed at scale by the time of the 2028 US presidential election, potentially persuading populations to accept cancelled elections or overturned results.
Early versions of AI-powered influence operations have already been used in elections in Taiwan, India and Indonesia. The experts call for coordinated global action, including the development of 'swarm scanners' and watermarked content to counter AI-run misinformation campaigns.
However, some experts express skepticism about the immediate threat. Inga Trauthig, a propaganda technology expert, notes that politicians may be reluctant to cede campaign control to AIs, and that voters are still more influenced by offline material. Nonetheless, the authors stress that advances in AI's ability to mimic human dynamics and autonomously plan actions are supercharging the risk.
Daniel Thilo Schroeder, a research scientist at Sintef, describes how easy it is to create small bot armies that can navigate social media and email. Jonas Kunst, professor at BI Norwegian Business School, warns that as bots evolve into collectives exchanging information to achieve malicious goals, their accuracy and efficiency will increase, posing a serious threat likely to materialise soon.
