OpenAI will direct ChatGPT users to the website “CanIVote.org” — run by the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) — to curb what they believe will be attempts to abuse the AI chat tool in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. NASS, an umbrella ‘non-partisan’ organization for state government’s Secretaries of State — is run by the Republican Kansas Secretary of State, Scott Schwab. Despite evidence of irregularities, Schwab insisted there was no indication of fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
During the 2022 primary election, Schwab came under fire from his Republican primary challenger, Mike Brown, for numerous administrative errors, including printing duplicated ballots. Mistakes like duplicate ballots and errors with voting machines continue to undermine confidence in U.S. elections.
The move by OpenAI — whose valuation may climb to $80 billion, making it the third most valuable start-up in the world — raises concerns about the amount of influence and control the company could exercise over U.S. and global elections. Numerous corporations use their powerful ChatGPT tool to power everything from ChatBots to contention generation to computer coding.
Concerns over doctored images and communications have led OpenAI to enact an authenticity program in which digital credentials will be set by third-party AI firms that will label pictures created by the DALL-E 3 image generator. However, there are no safeguards to prevent abuse by the watchdogs themselves.
Polling from late 2023 indicates a majority of Americans are concerned that the 2024 election will be impacted by cheating. Last year, a coding error flipped votes between candidates in a Pennsylvania judicial race. Also of concern is the admission by election officials that voting machines won’t be federally certified in time for the 2024 election.