EU Commission Aims to Combat Election Misinformation Through AI Content Regulations
Summary:
The European Commission (EC) plans to force major tech platforms and search engines to detect AI-created content to protect future European elections from misinformation. Public consultation on the draft guidelines is open until March 7. The commission intends to prevent the creation of misleading artificial content that could drastically shape user behavior. For AI-generated text, platforms are to specify data sources to aid user verification. The timeline for required labeling of manipulated content under EU's Digital Services Act is undecided, but Meta has revealed upcoming guidelines for AI content labeling on its platforms.
The European Commission (EC) plans to enforce rules on tech giants such as TikTok, X and Facebook to recognize AI created content, aiming to protect the integrity of future European elections from misinformation. The commission has initiated an open consultation on proposed election security rules for main internet platforms and search engines. The intentions behind these proposed guidelines are to mitigate the potential damage to democracy that can be caused by AI and deepfakes. The preliminary guidelines present potential measures to tackle the risks associated with elections, which include specific actions to handle AI generated content, preparations for risk mitigation before or after elections, and offering clear directions for the European Parliament elections. The potential for AI to deceive voters or interfere with the electoral procedure by creating and distributing artificial, misleading content relating to political figures, false representation of events, election polls and narratives is a concern. The preservation of election integrity also means guarding public discourse, much of which takes place online.
The commission has asked for public feedback on their draft guidelines under the Digital Services Act to address emerging online threats while maintaining the fundamentals of our democracies; a consultation process open to all EU citizens until March 7. The provisional guidelines for election security suggest that users of the relevant platforms should be warned about potential inaccuracies in AI created content. These recommendations also propose redirecting users to reliable information sources, and the implementation of safety measures by tech giants to prevent the creation of misleading content that could substantially influence user behavior.
For AI created text, the presently suggested approach for large online platforms and search engines operations is to specify the exact sources of information used in the AI output. This is intended to enable users to verify the reliability of the information and contextualize it further. The draft guidelines take inspiration from the EU's recently ratified legislative proposal, the AI Act, along with its non-legally binding counterpart, the AI Pact, for its proposed "best practices" for risk mitigation.
Concerns over advanced AI systems, like large language models, rose to prominence after last year's spike in AI generated material, bringing tools like OpenAI’s AI chatbot, ChatGPT, into the limelight.
The Commission has not yet defined when companies will be legally required to label manipulated content under EU's laws governing online content, the Digital Services Act. However, Meta has revealed plans in a recent blog post to roll out new guidelines on AI-generated content across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the upcoming months. All content identified as AI-generated, through metadata or deliberate watermarking, will bear a noticeable label.
Published At
2/10/2024 2:20:07 PM
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