National Council on Election Integrity calls on Congress to address threat of generative AI and prioritize election security

As concerns grow over the threat that generative artificial intelligence (AI) poses to U.S. national security, Issue One’s bipartisan National Council on Election Integrity released the following statement urging Congress to pass commonsense safeguards to protect our elections and provide adequate funding to the dedicated officials who administer them:

“Generative AI poses a direct threat to U.S. national security that requires a rapid policy response. Generative AI is capable of creating convincing false images, audio, and text on a mass scale. This capability in the wrong hands and without safeguards may be destabilizing to our elections, our economy, and our social fabric as it strikes at the very nature of truth. We appreciate that Senate and House leadership is beginning to tackle the potential challenges and opportunities that recent advancements in AI pose. As we head into a new election cycle, we urge members of both chambers to prioritize election security in their discussions of AI in order to maintain the public’s confidence in our elections. Congress must pass commonsense safeguards to protect our elections and provide adequate funding to the dedicated officials that run them.

“The National Council on Election Integrity is particularly concerned that foreign adversaries like China, Russia and Iran could use generative AI to disrupt our elections, and national security experts within the Pentagon agree that this presents a serious threat. Foreign bad actors seeking to undermine our democracy have attempted such attacks before, but they have never had such a powerful tool for societal disruption at their fingertips. Generative AI could also be used to exacerbate domestic violent threats and doxxing against election officials.

“Election officials at all levels are deeply concerned about the damage that generative AI could wreak on our election systems. Election officials need federal guidance and funding to harden their systems, hire and train staff, and begin communicating with voters to establish trusted lines of communication to pre-bunk false information. We urge Congress and executive branch agencies to pursue creative funding solutions to ensure that election officials have the resources they need to administer safe, fair, and efficient elections in 2024.

“We encourage Congress to act now to develop policy responses that address the dangers of AI and ensure election officials have the resources they need to prepare for and administer the next presidential election.”