{"id":2241377,"date":"2024-05-09T21:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T01:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-election-officials-trained-to-prepare-for-deepfakes-ahead-of-election\/"},"modified":"2024-05-09T21:23:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T01:23:53","slug":"arizona-election-officials-trained-to-prepare-for-deepfakes-ahead-of-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-election-officials-trained-to-prepare-for-deepfakes-ahead-of-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona election officials have received specialized training to combat deepfake threats before the election"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Farizona-election-officials-trained-to-prepare-for-deepfakes-ahead-of-election%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2241377&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In Arizona, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ninth-state-suddenly-abandons-eric-voter-registration-system-becomes-largest-to-leave-compact\/\" title=\"Ninth State Suddenly Abandons ERIC Voter Registration System, Becomes Largest to Leave Compact\">election \u200cofficials<\/a> are undergoing \u200cspecialized training to\u2062 detect deepfake videos \u200dahead of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/latest-presidential-polls-trump-desantis-in-dead-heat-with-biden\/\" title=\"Trump and DeSantis tied with Biden in latest polls.\">2024\u2063 general election<\/a>. \u200dThe training includes distinguishing\u2062 between\u2063 AI-generated deepfakes and authentic content. Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes introduced the officials to the challenges posed by deepfakes in \u200ba December 2023 session. The officials \u2064were surprised to learn \u2062that Fontes&#8217;s \u200cmessage was itself a deepfake \u200bafter \u2063the training.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/update-corrupted-software-that-stole-6000-votes-from-trump-in-michigan-county-shut-down-for-two-hours-in-red-counties-in-georgia-on-election-day\/\" title=\"Update: Corrupted Software that Stole 6,000 Votes From Trump in Michigan County -- Shut Down for TWO HOURS in Red Counties in Georgia on Election Day\">swing state<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/arizona\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Arizona<\/a>, election officials are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/05\/08\/arizona-election-workers-trained-with-deepfakes-prepare-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>being trained<\/a> on how to differentiate between artificial intelligence-generated \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/deepfake\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>deepfake<\/a>\u201d videos and real ones as they brace themselves for potential misinformation ahead of and during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2024-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>2024 general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a December 2023 training, election officials were greeted by a video from Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes wishing them luck in the training. <a href=\"https:\/\/security.virginia.edu\/deepfakes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Deepfakes<\/a> are videos in which a real person, oftentimes celebrities or politicians, are manipulated using AI to say typically false information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very excited that all of you are here,\u201d Fontes says in the video. \u201cYou are on the front lines, and this exercise is a prime opportunity for you to hone your skills by experiencing new challenges as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After completing the training over the course of two days, election officials were told Fontes\u2019s address was in fact a deepfake. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the end of the second day, you\u2019re like: Trust no one,\u201d Dana Lewis, the county recorder in Pinal County who participated in the training, said, per the <em>Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Fontes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/12\/22\/arizona-ai-election-deep-fakes-00133113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>said<\/a> this was the first election training to include deepfakes as a part of their training against threats of misinformation. He said AI is troubling because it preys on the public\u2019s view that videos from trusted sources, like elected officials, should be true when in fact they are not. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just kind of a faster, broader and deeper dissemination [of disinformation]\u201d Fontes said.<\/p>\n<p>Fontes said AI is \u201ca new version of the same old threats: misinformation, disinformation, misleading information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a part of the training, people representing the majority of Arizona\u2019s counties were sorted into 10 teams. Each team was then assigned to a made-up county with a limited budget to reflect budgets that can constrain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/just-in-floyd-county-georgia-terminates-election-director-after-statewide-audit-discovers-uncounted-votes\/\" title=\"JUST IN: Floyd County, Georgia Terminates Election Director After Statewide Audit Discovers Uncounted Votes\">election workers<\/a>. They went through exercises about potential threats AI could pose to them during the election. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very much like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-the-metaverse-a-new-domain-of-warfare\/\" title=\"Is the Metaverse a New Domain of Warfare?\">role-playing games<\/a>, like <em>Dungeons and Dragons<\/em>,\u201d Fontes said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make decisions in the moment. And there\u2019s an element of surreality. It\u2019s kind of real, but it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The training wasn\u2019t too far from reality; in January, some New Hampshire voters received a phone call from an AI-generated voice that sounded like President Joe Biden urging them not to vote in the state\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n<p>Election officials said they are already dealing with misinformation this election season, but new AI-generated tools allow that information to spread faster and look more official. <\/p>\n<p>At the conclusion of the training, election workers were congratulated by the fake Fontes, this time with information that would likely clue them in on it being a deepfake. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to call it a day, relax a little bit on our back patio, and watch my son practice ice hockey on the frozen lake behind our house here in Phoenix,\u201d the video says.<\/p>\n<p>Fontes\u2019s son does not play ice hockey, and a frozen lake would not survive the Phoenix heat.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona election officials in the pivotal swing state are undergoing specialized training to discern deepfake videos from authentic ones. With the 2024 general election looming, they aim to combat potential misinformation. During a December 2023 session, Democratic Arizona Secretary of State introduced officials to the challenges posed by deepfakes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2910,"featured_media":2241378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/adrian-fontes-1024x592.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2241377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/adrian-fontes-1024x592.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2241377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2241378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2241377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2241377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2241377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}