Nigeria election officials and Microsoft outline AI safeguards ahead of 2027 vote
publishers 134articles 180first reported 28 Sep, 20:00 UTCdeveloping since 29 Sep · 24 editions
Nigeria’s electoral commission and Microsoft outlined plans to limit the misuse of artificial intelligence ahead of the country’s 2027 general election during an AI and Democracy Forum in Abuja.
Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman Joash Amupitan said algorithms would not determine the election’s outcome, while acknowledging that AI would shape the information voters encounter, election logistics and attempts to disrupt the process. He said AI could assist with route planning, result auditing, biometric database management, multilingual voter engagement and cybersecurity, but must remain subordinate to human judgment and democratic institutions.
Amupitan said INEC is preparing to conduct elections for more than 103 million registered voters across 176,846 polling units in 774 local government areas. He added that the commission had completed 10 of 14 major operational milestones, procured additional biometric accreditation devices and processed more than 15,000 candidate nominations from 22 parties.
Microsoft Senior Director of Global Elections Dave Liechtman said the company planned to add INEC’s final candidate list to its systems to prevent its generative AI tools from producing unrealistic images of candidates. He said the measure was part of technology companies’ commitments under the 2024 Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in Elections, including removing unauthorized synthetic media depicting candidates or election officials.
The forum brought together election officials, civil society groups, media organizations, security agencies and technology companies to discuss AI-related risks and uses in the 2027 elections.
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Written from 8 articles, 5 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 354 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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