Jerusalem – Israel’s Central Elections Committee (CEC) is bracing for potential interference in upcoming national elections, establishing a dedicated team with the Shin Bet security agency to counter the growing threat of AI-generated disinformation. The move, announced Monday, signals a heightened awareness of the challenges posed by rapidly evolving artificial intelligence tools.
AI Election Interference: Israel Prepares for a New Kind of Battle
The CEC is working to build defenses against AI-driven misinformation campaigns that could sway voters.
- The CEC is collaborating with the Shin Bet and other security agencies to address AI threats.
- Concerns center around the potential for AI to create and spread convincing but false images and videos.
- Officials acknowledge the difficulty of completely eliminating online misinformation.
- TikTok says it has tools to label AI-generated content, claiming 97% effectiveness.
- Experts warn social media platforms need to do more to combat disinformation.
Orly Adas, director general of the CEC, told the Knesset Science and Technology Committee that the committee regularly works with multiple security agencies to ensure secure elections. “We are in the process of locating consultants in the field of AI who will assemble a dedicated forum on the issue, and it is on the agenda,” Adas said, according to a statement from the Knesset. this is the sixth national election where the CEC will convene a broad forum including the Shin Bet, the National Cyber Directorate, the Privacy protection Authority, and others.
Q: How is Israel preparing for AI-driven election interference?
A: The Central elections Committee is forming a dedicated team with the Shin Bet, consulting AI experts, and collaborating with security agencies to identify and counter potential disinformation campaigns.
Adas conceded that completely eliminating false information online is unrealistic. “It’s not feasible that we’ll be able to clean up the online space of problematic and fictitious campaigns and content – even if a large campaign is removed, it can reappear within hours,” she stated.
The next national election must be held by October 27, 2026. Since the 2022 election, AI tools capable of generating realistic images and videos have become widespread, flooding social media with potentially misleading content. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared an AI-generated image in October, posting to X (formerly Twitter) a depiction of former U.S. President Donald Trump receiving a Nobel Peace Prize.
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