Microsoft: AI Is Not Widely Used For Disinformation In The Election Of The European Parliament

JAKARTA - Microsoft has not seen the significant use of artificial intelligence (AI) in disinformation campaigns during the election of the European Parliament. This was said by Microsoft President, Brad Smith, in an interview with Reuters.

Smith is in Stockholm to announce Microsoft's plans to invest 33.7 billion Swedish kroners (Rp52 trillion) to expand cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence in Sweden over the next two years. "We must recognize the risks AI can pose in the context of creating harmful content, and one form of harmful content is the deepfake generated by AI," Smith said.

AI and deepfake generated by AI are increasingly being used in elections in various parts of the world, including in India, the United States, Pakistan, and Indonesia. In India, a deepfake video featuring two well-known Bollywood actors criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked people to vote for the opposition party, the Congressional Party, to go viral during the general election in the country.

Last month, the EU's anti-disinformation team uncovered a Russian-language video on Google's YouTube, which said residents had fled from dictatorships in EU member states, Poland, and sought asylum in Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.

The European Parliament election will be held on June 6-9 in conjunction with bloc landmark rules on AI that will take effect this month, establishing a potential global benchmark for technologies used in business and daily life.

Microsoft has trained prospective members of the European Parliament to monitor this situation. "We haven't seen any energetic efforts to try to exploit this election," Smith said. "The election is not over yet, so we shouldn't claim victory too early."

"We only see Russia focusing on the Olympics," Smith said, adding that Microsoft would issue a report on the topic later on Monday, June 3.

The International Olympic Committee banned the Russian Olympic Committee in October for recognizing the regional Olympic council for Russia's occupied Ukrainian territory - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia.