Hello, Fortune tech editor Alexei Oreskovic here. We’re less than a year away from the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and there’s growing anxiety about the potential for new and widely accessible generative AI tools to wreak havoc on the process. Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn first wrote about the issue back in April—not much has happened to address the problem since then although awareness about the issue is rising.
That was clear at Fortune’s Brainstorm AI conference which took place in San Francisco this week. Several speakers at the event weighed in on the issue with varying degrees of alarm.
“I’m deeply skeptical of what’s going to happen in ’24, I think it’s going to be a total shit show in terms of misinformation,” said Jim Steyer, the founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, warning of an onslaught of domestic and foreign entities dedicated to influencing the outcome.
He blasted social media platforms X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook for having “gutted” trust and safety teams—the groups that are tasked with policing the platforms for misinformation—and he dismissed federal regulatory oversight as a joke.
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said he was “very concerned” about bad actors using AI to interfere in the election. While some—including the White House with President Joe Biden’s recent executive order on AI—have touted watermarking technology as a solution for authenticating legitimate images and videos from AI-generated deepfakes, Hoffman was skeptical. The structure for watermarking technology needs to be set up by the companies that oversee AI models, such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. But those are not the only AI models available.
“The Russians will be running open source models that don’t have that watermarking requirement,” he said.
Vinod Khosla, the cofounder of Sun Microsystems and one of the most influential Silicon Valley investors, reckoned there was a 95% chance that generative AI would be influential in the upcoming election. Describing something that sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, Khosla offered his view on what this might look like:
“I’d be surprised if there aren’t 100 million or more bots, with persuasive AI, one-on-one engaging with every voter trying to influence our election for their purposes.”
On that cheery note, here’s what else is going on in tech today.
Alexei Oreskovic
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Today’s edition was curated by David Meyer.
NEWSWORTHY
U.K. considers social media curbs. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering banning under-16s from using social media. According to Bloomberg, there will be a consultation in the new year to examine social media’s risks to young people. All this comes despite the fact that Sunak’s government only just introduced the Online Safety Act, which forces social media firms to do more to protect young users.
Warren targets Meta. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has written to Mark Zuckerberg to demand answers about Meta’s alleged suppression of pro-Palestinian content. “Amidst the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, a humanitarian catastrophe including the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza, and the killing of dozens of journalists, it is more important than ever that social media platforms do not censor truthful and legitimate content, particularly as people around the world turn to online communities to share and find information about developments in the region,” she wrote, according to The Intercept.
Meta thief. Former Meta strategist Barbara Furlow-Smiles has pleaded guilty to stealing over $4 million from the company. As CNN reports, she used the cash to pay for hair stylists, babysitters, and preschool tuition, and even for services never performed. Furlow-Smiles will be sentenced in March.
ON OUR FEED
“Every penny we donate will go to support like-minded candidates and oppose candidates who aim to kill America’s advanced technological future.”
—Andreessen Horowitz cofounder Ben Horowitz announces a16z’s plan to get involved in politics “for the first time,” on a “non-partisan, one issue” basis.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How Apple finally cracked the India market—at exactly the right time, by Varsha Bansal
GM’s moonshot bet on self-driving cars sours as Cruise axes a quarter of its workforce, by Christiaan Hetzner
AI is OK with boomers—natural language capabilities are helping the newest technology find an eager audience with older users, by Alexei Oreskovic
GenAI is turning the cybersecurity landscape—and the CISO role—on its head, by Sage Lazzaro
Days after announcing a deal with SpaceX, Amazon seeks to dismiss lawsuit claiming it snubbed the Elon Musk space company last year, by Steve Mollman
BEFORE YOU GO
Pitching corporate surveillance. Cox Media Group’s marketing team is reportedly pitching their ability to listen to consumers’ conversations via the microphones in phones and smart TVs, to deliver targeted advertising.
404 Media reviewed CMG marketing material and notes that, while it’s unclear if this spying technique really is currently in use, the company is telling prospective clients that it’s “available today.” “No, it's not a Black Mirror episode—it's Voice Data, and CMG has the capabilities to use it to your business advantage,” the material trills, as though Black Mirror was supposed to be aspirational.
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