Microsoft to Limit AI Images of Candidates for 2027 Elections

Microsoft will limit its AI tools from producing unrealistic images of political candidates before Nigeria's 2027 general election, a senior official said.

Dave Liechtman, Microsoft's Senior Director of Global Elections, shared this news on Wednesday. He spoke during a panel at the AI and Democracy Forum (AIDF) in Abuja.

The AIDF is a two-day event that gathered people from electoral commissions in West African countries, security agencies, civil society groups, the media, tech companies, and students. They met to talk about AI's role in elections.

The forum was themed “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” Yiaga Africa organized the event with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Microsoft, TikTok, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Dataphyte, the MacArthur Foundation, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and other partners.

Limiting AI Images of Candidates

During the panel session called “Will Algorithms Decide the 2027 Vote?”, Mr Liechtman said Microsoft plans to put INEC’s final list of candidates into its system. This step will stop generative AI from making unrealistic images of the candidates.

“I offered to INEC at their offices this week that, I think you just finalized the candidate list this weekend, we’re going to load that candidate list into our system to make sure that generative AI cannot be used to generate unrealistic images of candidates,” he said.

He mentioned that this effort is part of the companies' promise to stop the unauthorized use of candidates’ images on their platforms.

Mr Liechtman said Microsoft and other companies that develop AI technology have promised to remove unauthorized synthetic media featuring candidates or election officials during elections.

He explained that the commitment was made in 2024 when tech companies signed an agreement called the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in Elections.

This agreement requires the companies to take down content from their platforms that uses a candidate’s or election official’s likeness without permission.

“Google agreed to that, and all the platforms agreed to it. We have maintained that commitment for the last two and a half years, and we intend to continue maintaining that commitment,” he said.

Mr Liechtman recognized worries about deepfakes but said their impact on elections might not be as big as some people think.

He referenced research from the United States showing that voters might distrust candidates more if they know those candidates shared AI-generated media.

He said this data should caution against spreading misleading content. “All candidates should take note of that and say, ‘Oh, when I’m sharing garbage out there, it actually turns people off to voting,’” he said.

AI and the 2027 Election

Mr Liechtman stated that AI, like other powerful technologies, can be used for both good and bad. He said it is essential to maximize its benefits while lowering the risks.

He noted that AI could help in elections and society but warned that there should be protections in place to stop misuse.

In his speech, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan said the electoral commission has set up an AI unit. This unit will strengthen its digital systems, including managing results during elections.

He mentioned that AI-based cyber-security systems could help find denial-of-service attacks, brute-force attacks, and other threats to election systems.

In his welcome speech, Yiaga Africa's Executive Director, Samson Itodo, said building public trust would be a major challenge leading up to the 2027 elections.

“Just last week, Yiaga Africa issued a national voting intention survey report, where it is obvious that Nigerians doubt the credibility of the process, and that their votes will not count in 2027,” Mr Itodo said.

“It is one thing to deploy technology; it is another thing for the personal integrity of those managing those technologies to deliver.”

Mr Itodo also raised concerns about the many AI platforms being created to gather election results ahead of 2027.

He urged groups using AI for results gathering to ensure their systems are accurate, transparent, and can be checked. “For us, as an organization, we’re very open and transparent about the methodologies that we use,” he said.