(NewsNation) — Arizona is taking precautionary steps to avoid election cycle bullying, cyberattacks and deep fakes looking to derail voters.
As the 2024 election cycle approaches, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is leading an effort to combat possible AI disruptions and other cybersecurity attacks. Fontes aims to avoid any issues that may arise ahead of voting and at the polls.
The state is rehearsing for Election Day now, focusing on how to spot AI-generated content and deep fake technology that can create phony videos of politicians and field conspiracy theories.
As a battleground state, Arizona faced reports in the past of voter intimidation and threats that forced federal officials to create an election security umbrella that never existed before.
Maricopa County, which has more than 4 million residents and includes Phoenix, was an epicenter of election fraud allegations in the 2020 cycle – which led to a controversial audit by the state senate.
Fontes’ team conducted a tabletop exercise to prepare for the upcoming election, trying to spot any cyber activity outside normal operations.
“Infrastructure is really important. We’ve got to be ready,” Fontes said.
AI elements were brought in to educate people across the Arizona Election Administration on what sort of things might happen during the actual election. One example of this included presenting a deepfake of a security individual’s voice coming over the phone line to an election official asking for passwords and logins.
Another example of this includes AI-generated news pieces released over social media that try to fake out voters or election officials, Fontes said.
“There’s a whole world of possibilities out there,” he said. “The point is to make our folks here in Arizona familiar with the types of threats so that they will be prepared if and when something like this does end up happening.”
While AI companies are trying to be responsible with their development, Fontes said it’s hard for the groups to moderate the technology when they are working to advance its capabilities. Fontes and the AI representatives who led these trainings made sure to focus on what could happen if election officials were targets of cyberattacks.
“It’s got blessings, it’s got curses, but ignoring it is the worst thing that we can do in Arizona,” Fontes said.
He continued, “We are going to continue to push the envelope when it comes to training our election officials at every level to make sure that we are ready for any threat that may emerge in 2024.”