The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has flagged officials in about 10 states for uploading artificial intelligence-generated photographs to the national voters’ register, with those involved set to face disciplinary action.
INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this on Wednesday during a webinar titled ‘AI, Misinformation and Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Safeguarding the Truth, Protecting the Vote’, organised by the PUNCH Media Foundation.
Haruna, who chairs the commission’s Information and Voter Education Committee, described the development as a major challenge, noting that AI-generated photographs had already been identified and removed from the voters’ register.
He explained that while INEC had limited control over members of the public who digitally manipulate their photographs before uploading them, it could take action against staff involved in such violations.
“We have already seen one of the challenges, which is that a lot of AI-generated photographs were posted onto the voters’ register, which, as we have said, we have had to take down,” he said.
According to him, the commission had identified its officials involved in the practice and flagged them for disciplinary action.
“But the ones involving our own staff, where it is our own staff that did so, that one is within our control. We are in the process of addressing it. They have been flagged,” he said.
He added that the commission had obtained the names of the officials across about 10 states and would take disciplinary measures against them.
“We have their names across about 10 states, and obviously, they are going to face disciplinary action,” he added.
On INEC’s preparedness to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in the electoral process, Haruna disclosed that the commission had developed an AI policy which was still being finalised.
He acknowledged that regulating artificial intelligence remained a challenge globally because the technology was evolving, making it difficult for even advanced democracies to establish comprehensive policies.
“As you know very well, it is new territory out there. Even the most advanced countries don’t have what you might call concrete, specific policies about AI because these things are evolving,” he said.
Haruna, however, said INEC had outlined its plans for deploying the technology and would soon finalise the policy for public consideration.
“But we have at least some ideas of what we want to do and how we want to use that. We have that policy. Very soon, we will concretise it, and we will be able to share it with the media,” he said.
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