Warner disappointed with tech companies over AI misuse in election

In February, a group of technology companies signed the Munich Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections, a high-level roadmap for a variety of new initiatives, investments and interventions that could improve the information ecosystem surrounding this year’s elections.

In May  Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia pushed for specific answers about the actions that companies are taking to make good on the Tech Accord, including its applicability to combat misuse of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) products outside the election context.

With under 100 days until the U.S. presidential election, Warner shared responses from tech companies about efforts to crack down on malicious uses of AI and released the statement below on their ramifications for the election and beyond.

“I appreciate the thoughtful engagement from the signatories of the Munich Tech Accord. Their responses indicated promising avenues for collaboration, information-sharing, and standards development, but also illuminated areas for significant improvement,” Warner said.

According to Warner, the companies have created clear policies against AI misuses and undertaken deployment testing measures. However, a lack of specificity and resourcing on enforcement of the policies exists.

“Additionally, companies offered little indication of detailed and sustained efforts to engage local media, civic institutions and election officials and equip them with resources to identify and address misuse of generative AI tools in their communities. Leading social media platforms and gen-AI vendors have commendably posted resources to their websites and have had extensive engagement with legislative and regulatory bodies at the national level, but the failure modes of this technology require sustained relationship-building with local institutions,” Warner said last week.

He expressed disappointment that few of the AI companies provided clear reporting channels and remediation mechanisms against impersonation-based misuses for technology users.

“Generative AI tools are already harming vulnerable communities – including seniors, who are often victims of financial fraud, and teens, who are vulnerable to appalling acts of non-consensual image generation and extortion,” Warner said.

The most relevant concern is for a lack of robust and standardized information-sharing mechanisms within the ecosystem ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“With the election less than 100 days away, we must prioritize real action and robust communication to systematically catalogue harmful AI-generated content. While this technology offers significant promise, generative AI still poses a grave threat to the integrity of our elections, and I’m laser-focused on continuing to work with public and private partners to get ahead of these real and credible threats,” Warner said.

Adobe, Amazon, Anthropic, Arm, Google, IBM, Intuit, LG, McAfee, Microsoft, Meta, Open AI, Snap, Stability AI, TikTok, Trend, True Media, Truepic and X provided responses. ElevenLabs, Gen, Inflection, NetApp, and Nota did not provide responses.

Ahead of the 2024 election, Warner has repeatedly raised the alarm about the potential for AI and tech companies to create and disseminate credible misinformation to influence election results. In late July, he issued a statement on the most recent election security update from the Director of National Intelligence. He has also held open hearings in the Intelligence Committee on the critical issue.