Microsoft plans AI safeguards for Nigeria’s 2027 elections as INEC outlines preparations
publishers 144articles 245first reported 28 Sep, 20:00 UTCdeveloping since 29 Sep · 34 editions
Microsoft plans to restrict its generative AI tools from creating unauthorized, unrealistic images of candidates ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election, a company official said at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum in Abuja.
Dave Liechtman, Microsoft’s senior director of global elections, said the company would add the Independent National Electoral Commission’s final candidate list to its systems as part of the measure. He said Microsoft and other technology companies remain committed to a 2024 industry accord under which participating platforms agreed to address unauthorized synthetic media depicting candidates or election officials.
At the same forum, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan said artificial intelligence would influence the election’s information environment and could affect logistics and attempts to disrupt the process, but stressed that voters alone would determine the outcome. He said AI could help with route planning, auditing results, biometric database management, multilingual voter engagement and cybersecurity.
Amupitan said the elections would serve more than 103 million registered voters at 176,846 polling units across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas. Voting will cover presidential, National Assembly, governorship and state assembly contests.
According to Amupitan, INEC has completed 10 of 14 major operational milestones under the Electoral Act 2026. Preparations include procuring additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices, introducing online voter registration and digitizing candidate nominations. He said the commission had processed more than 15,000 nominations from 22 political parties.
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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 390 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- This version written
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