INEC’s ICT Director admits AI-generated images have been entered into voter register

The Independent National Electoral Commission has attributed the looks of AI-generated images and different questionable entries in its preliminary voters’ register to irregularities allegedly launched by some registration officers.

INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, disclosed this on Friday throughout an look on Arise Television. He mentioned the officers had authorised login credentials that allowed them to entry the registration system and enrol voters.

“We have registration officers on the field. And these registration officers, they have login details to log into the system,” Bayode mentioned. “So what we have found is that some of these registration officers, not all of them now, some of them across the states nationwide, they’ve done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register.”

Bayode mentioned INEC detected the questionable data when it examined the database utilizing its Automated Biometric Identification System, often called ABIS. He defined that some images have been generated utilizing synthetic intelligence, whereas others mirrored poor registration procedures.

“Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them not AI-generated, but very bad registration. And this thing got into the register by the registration officers and because they have access to register people,” he mentioned. The ICT director added that the fee had recognized the affected data and understood how a number of the irregularities occurred, though he couldn’t clarify the officers’ motives.

“When the ABIS was run on the system, we saw these people. We know what they did. We know how they did it. But honestly, I don’t know why,” he mentioned. Bayode mentioned work to scrub up the register had begun earlier than the preliminary model was revealed on-line. He added that the fee was underneath strain to finish the train throughout the statutory 90-day interval.

His rationalization follows public criticism after INEC uploaded the preliminary register to its web site on October 26. Screenshots shared on social media confirmed suspicious images connected to voter data in elements of Edo State. Other complaints involved alleged duplicate entries and registered voters whose particulars have been lacking from the net register.

INEC had beforehand defined that the net publication contained the identical preliminary register displayed bodily at registration areas nationwide between October 9 and 15 through the Display, Claims and Objections train. In an announcement issued on October 27, the fee mentioned questionable data had been recognized and flagged through the bodily show, prompting additional examination and corrective motion.

It additionally pressured that the net register was not the ultimate licensed model and didn’t replicate all of the data-cleanup work underneath manner. INEC is anticipated to finish its verification, adjudication and correction processes earlier than the ultimate register is licensed on December 15, 2026.