Nigeria: How the pcoming elections are influeced by the rise of AI disinformation

Nigeria has just over two months to go to the polls, with incumbent President Bola Tinubu running on a ticket focused on combating raging insecurity and resolving the nation's economic crisis . He faces off against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and senior opposition figure Peter Obi.

The country's electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), recently released its preliminary voter's register, which reportedly is riddled with images believed to have been generated using artificial intelligence (AI) .

Among the telltale signs of AI usage were exaggerated facial features in images, and inconsistencies on the electoral registers, such as duplicates of names and even identities of people who since the previous election had died.

The development raises concerns about the body's overall preparedness ahead of the country's upcoming 2027 general elections; instead of making the upcoming vote more transparent by allowing access to its procedures, INEC has come under fire amid broader controversies about the expanding influence of AI in elections across the continent.

Joash Amupitan, the chairman of the commission, said the body is now investigating the development, focusing on discrepancies potentially created by AI-use.

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