AI not enemy of democracy, says INEC Chairman Amupitan

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has defended the combination of Artificial Intelligence in electoral administration, asserting that know-how is just not an inherent enemy of democracy.

Speaking in Abuja at The Beyond the Ballot Summit, Amupitan famous that AI gives very important instruments to boost administrative effectivity, streamline voter registration, optimize logistics planning, and handle giant voter databases.

However, the INEC chairman issued a robust warning relating to the malicious exploitation of generative AI instruments, highlighting dangers that would undermine public belief forward of the 2027 common elections.

“Artificial Intelligence, AI, is not an enemy of democracy,” Amupitan said.

“However, the rabid democratisation of generative AI models has dramatically lowered the barrier to entry for malicious actors… Capabilities that want to require speedy-level intelligence resources such as high voice cloning of public figures, hyper-realistic synthesis of election officials making false announcements are now accessible at negligible cost. These tools target specific vulnerabilities with distinct timelines.”

The rising accessibility of generative AI has intensified considerations surrounding the speedy unfold of misinformation, deepfakes, and fabricated audio-visual content material designed to mislead voters or impersonate election directors.

These considerations had been additional compounded by latest database integrity points, following the invention of suspicious, probably AI-generated pictures inside INEC’s preliminary Register of Voters in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.

Addressing the irregularities, INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, defined that a few of the questionable information had been tied to procedural breaches allegedly launched by registration officers with system entry.

Despite these vulnerabilities, INEC management emphasised that the fee is actively placing strong safeguards in place to steadiness technological innovation with stringent cybersecurity measures, guaranteeing that the 2027 electoral course of stays clear, safe, and credible.