[It’s unclear how effective it will be, but the latest example of the growing threat from the use of generative artificial intelligence technologies to manipulate perceptions and behavior in the political sphere is the use of automatic phone calls that seem to be from President Joe Biden, telling prospective voters not to vote in today’s first-in-the-nation primary election. The details are in this story from CNN, where you can listen to the robocall. More context on the threat follows below from USA Today’s coverage. See also “Three technology trends shaping 2024’s elections” from MIT Technology Review. –Matthew]

[Image: Attendees hold signs during a Write-In Joe Biden campaign “Get Out The Vote” event in Dover, New Hampshire, US, on Sunday, January 21, 2024.]

Fake Joe Biden robocall urges New Hampshire voters not to vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary

By Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN
January 22, 2024

CNN — A robocall that appears to be an AI voice resembling President Joe Biden is reaching out to New Hampshire residents, advising them against voting in Tuesday’s presidential primary and saving their vote for the November general election.

Audio of the call was reviewed by CNN from the anti-robocall application Nomorobo. Their tracking data suggests a large volume of calls. It’s unclear who is behind the call.

“Republicans have been trying to push nonpartisan and Democratic voters to participate in their primary. What a bunch of malarkey,” says the digitally altered Biden voice. “We know the value of voting Democratic when our votes count. It’s important that you save your vote for the November election. We’ll need your help in electing Democrats up and down the ticket. Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again.”

The application rates the number of calls, which were first reported by NBC News, as “severe,” among its highest rating for calls.

Nomorobo CEO Aaron Foss told CNN their data showed that 76% of the robocalls targeted New Hampshire, with 12% directed at Boston and the remaining 12% covering other areas. They estimated the number of these fraudulent calls ranged from 5,000 to 25,000.

Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot in the upcoming New Hampshire primary on Tuesday over a dispute between the state and the Democratic National Committee, which voted to move the New Hampshire primary out of its traditional first-in-the nation position. As a result, there is an organized effort to write-in Biden’s name.

“This matter has already been referred to the New Hampshire Attorney General, and the campaign is actively discussing additional actions to take immediately. Spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand, and fighting back against any attempt to undermine our democracy will continue to be a top priority for this campaign,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Aaron Jacobs, a spokesperson for Write-In Biden, said in a statement, “This is deep fake disinformation designed to harm Joe Biden, suppress votes, and damage our democracy,” adding that the group remains “focused on one goal until polls close on Tuesday: encouraging Granite Staters to write-in Joe Biden.”

At the end of the call, the voice of an unknown male directs listeners to call a local New Hampshire number to be removed from future calls.

The call uses spoofing, a common practice in fraudulent robocalling which manipulates caller ID information to display a false phone number, obscuring the true identity of the caller.

The robocall shows up on caller ID as a local New Hampshire number that belongs to Kathy Sullivan, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair and treasurer for the Granite for America PAC. The PAC is working to encourage voters to write in Biden’s name this Tuesday.

In a phone interview, Sullivan, who is supporting Biden in the 2024 election, said she first received calls on Sunday night and spoke with the New Hampshire attorney general’s office on Monday to file a complaint over the robocall.

“It’s very apparent that there’s someone, or someones, out there who want to suppress the primary write-in vote on Tuesday, tomorrow, by sending out this robocall saying, ‘Don’t vote for Joe Biden,’ or Joe Biden saying, ‘Don’t vote on Tuesday, save your vote until November,’” said Sullivan. “It’s voter suppression by someone who wants to hurt Joe Biden.”

Sullivan said she believes her phone was listed as a way to “jam” up her phone lines.

“It’s personally annoying, but more importantly it’s just reprehensible that someone would be trying to suppress the vote by telling people not to vote on Tuesday,” she said. “That’s an interference with our democracy. It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

The campaign of Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who is challenging Biden in the New Hampshire primary, found out about the call from reporter outreach last night, according to spokesperson Katie Dolan.

“Any effort to discourage voters is disgraceful and an unacceptable affront to democracy,” Dolan said in a statement. “The potential use of AI to manipulate voters is deeply disturbing.”

—

[From USA Today]

Voters got a call from Joe Biden telling them to skip the New Hampshire primary. It was fake.

By Karissa WaddickJosh Meyer, USA TODAY
January 22, 2024

[snip]

Miles Taylor, a former senior Department of Homeland Security official, said he and other cybersecurity experts have been bracing for the malicious use of deepfakes in the 2024 presidential election.

Deepfakes are videos or images that have been digitally created or changed with artificial intelligence or other technology.

“We’ve been working with US officials on the expected surge in deepfakes,” Taylor said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This is just the beginning.”

The threat of deepfakes

The misuse of deepfakes during an election has long been a concern of U.S. government and private sector security officials, even before they started showing up during campaign seasons.

Last June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign reportedly used images of Trump embracing Dr. Anthony Fauci in a campaign video that forensic experts said were almost certainly realistic-looking deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence, the USA TODAY Network reported at the time.

A month before that, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., launched a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the potential pitfalls of deepfakes by playing an AI-generated recording that mimicked his voice and read a ChatGPT-generated script.

“If you were listening from home, you might have thought that voice was mine and the words from me,” the real Blumenthal said in revealing the deep fake, warning that the technology could be game-changing in terms of “the proliferation of disinformation, and the deepening of societal inequalities.”

One former Department of Homeland Security cyber official warned that the fake Biden call in New Hampshire could become the new normal given the rapid advances in technology and the lack of comprehensive government and private sector oversight.

“Obviously, there are risks with AI, particularly in the political sphere where there is a winner-takes-all issue like an election,” said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of their current role with a social media company involved in protecting against deep fakes.

“That’s where you are going to see the most targeted and arguably most insecure uses of AI because the incentives for the players are absolutely to sort of kill the other guy. So you see them innovating quickly and incorporating new technologies,” the former Homeland Security official said. ”The problem is right now, we don’t have all the answers about how to secure AI, or how to use AI for security. I think everyone is trying to get their legs on under them.”

New Hampshire state authorities investigating

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office in a statement confirmed that it has received complaints regarding the recorded message and launched an investigation.

“Although the voice in the robocall sounds like the voice of President Biden, this message appears to be artificially generated based on initial indications,” the statement from Attorney General John M. Formella said.

“These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election and to suppress New Hampshire voters,” Formella added. “New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely. Voting in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election does not preclude a voter from additionally voting in the November General Election.”

The Granite State official also said people who received the call were encouraged to send an e-mail to the state Department of Justice Election Law Unit with details about the date and time they received the call or message, its origin and its content. The investigation remains ongoing.