Microsoft, INEC outline AI safeguards ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections
publishers 151articles 257first reported 28 Sep, 20:00 UTCdeveloping since 29 Sep · 28 editions
Microsoft plans to restrict its generative AI tools from creating 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 to help prevent unauthorized synthetic depictions. He said the measure continued commitments made under the 2024 Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in Elections, whose participating technology companies agreed to address unauthorized content using the likenesses of candidates and election officials.
At the same forum, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan said algorithms “will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” while acknowledging that AI would affect election information, logistics, cybersecurity and attempts to disrupt the process. He said voting decisions belonged exclusively to Nigerians.
Amupitan said INEC would conduct elections for more than 103 million registered voters across 176,846 polling units. The contests will include presidential, National Assembly, governorship and state House of Assembly ballots.
According to Amupitan, the commission has completed 10 of 14 major operational milestones under the Electoral Act 2026. It has procured additional biometric voter accreditation devices, digitized candidate nominations and processed more than 15,000 nominations from 22 political parties. He also cited potential uses of AI in route planning, election-result auditing, biometric database management, multilingual voter engagement and cybersecurity.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 5 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one (7 if wire copies count as one too); this version written 426 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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