BRUSSELS – Facebook owner Meta will set up a team to look into disinformation and the abuse of generative artificial intelligence in the run-up to June’s European Parliament elections amid concerns about election meddling and misleading content generated by artificial intelligence.
The rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence, which can create text, images and video in seconds in response to challenges, has sparked fears that the new technology could be used to disrupt major elections around the world this year.
The elections to the European Parliament will be held from June 6 to 9. Its 720 legislators, together with EU governments, approve new EU policies and laws.
“As the election approaches, we are activating the Election Operations Center to identify potential threats and implement mitigation in real time,” Marco Pancini, Meta’s head of EU affairs, said in a blog post.
Also read: ‘X’ faces prolonged suspension across Pakistan
He said experts from the company’s intelligence, data, engineering, research, operations, content and legal teams will focus on combating disinformation, addressing influence operations and risks related to the misuse of generative artificial intelligence.
Meta, which currently works with 26 independent fact-checking organizations across the European Union covering 22 languages, will add three new partners in Bulgaria, France and Slovakia, Pancini said.
Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and 17 other technology companies agreed earlier this month to work together to prevent deceptive AI content from interfering with elections around the world this year.
