How Disinformation Defined the 2024 Election Narrative
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High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.
Rating inherited from publication venue: Brookings Institution
Relevant to AI safety governance discussions around misuse of generative AI for political manipulation; illustrates real-world deployment harms from AI-enabled disinformation in a high-stakes electoral context.
Metadata
Summary
A Brookings Institution analysis examining how organized disinformation campaigns, amplified by generative AI tools, shaped voter perceptions during the 2024 U.S. election. The piece highlights specific examples of AI-generated fake videos and foreign-origin content, and discusses how low media trust combined with powerful content-creation tools enabled widespread narrative manipulation.
Key Points
- •Generative AI tools lowered barriers to creating convincing fake images, videos, and narratives used to sway voters in the 2024 election.
- •A viral video falsely depicting a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted twice in Georgia was traced back to Russian origin.
- •Low public confidence in news media made voters more susceptible to disinformation campaigns across multiple platforms.
- •Polling data indicated false claims measurably distorted public perceptions on key issues like the economy, immigration, and crime.
- •The convergence of AI-generated content and organized foreign interference represents a significant threat to democratic integrity.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Era Epistemic Security | Approach | 63.0 |
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How disinformation defined the 2024 election narrative | Brookings
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Commentary
How disinformation defined the 2024 election narrative
Darrell M. West
Darrell M. West
Senior Fellow
- Governance Studies , Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) , Center for Effective Public Management (CEPM) ,
Douglas Dillon Chair in Governmental Studies
November 7, 2024
In a situation where public confidence in news reporters is very low and new generative AI tools make it easy to create and disseminate fake pictures, videos, and narratives, the 2024 campaign was rife with organized efforts to sway voters, twist perceptions, and make people believe negative material about various candidates.
One video featured a Haitian man (although he was not really Haitian) saying he had just gotten to the United States and had voted in two counties—Gwinnett and Fulton—in Georgia, but it turned out to be a fake video made in Russia.
Polling data suggest that false claims affected how people saw the candidates, their views about leading issues such as the economy, immigration, and crime, and the way the news media covered the campaign.
Social media icons logo displayed on a smartphone with disinformation on screen seen in the background of this photo illustration taken on October 15, 2023. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto
6 min read
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