Think you could spot a deepfaked politician?

Given the quality of many politicians at the moment you might be forgiven for thinking that sometimes a deepfake would be an improvement.

But to be serious, a new study from Jumio of over 2,000 adults from across the UK finds that 60 percent are worried about the potential for AI and deepfakes to influence upcoming elections, and only 33 percent think they could easily spot a deepfake of a politician.

The data also reveals a changing relationship between the public and online media. 64 percent of respondents say they are more skeptical of the political content they see online, compared to the last election in 2019. Northern Ireland (79 percent) stands out as the most politically skeptical region of the UK when it comes to online political content.

"With the UK heading to the polls, it's vital that we have an open conversation about the role that generative AI and deepfakes could play in the national debate," says Stuart Wells, Jumio's chief technology officer. "The public's lack of confidence in their ability to identify fraudulent content online is concerning, and more needs to be done to educate consumers on how to spot deepfaked content, and how to report it should they see it. Online organizations also have a responsibility and should implement multimodal, biometric-based verification systems or other deepfake detection mechanisms to keep deepfakes from influencing voters in the days leading up to the election and beyond."

The arrival of generative AI and deepfakes hasn't significantly changed trust in traditional news media though. 56 percent say nothing has changed in their level of trust in print or broadcast news, while 25 percent say they trust print and broadcast news less. However, four in 10 in the UK say they trust what they see on social media less than they did before the arrival of generative AI.

Understandably given these findings there's an appetite for increased regulation of AI, 53 percent think UK laws around AI don't go far enough, while only 26 percent trust the government's ability to regulate the technology.

You can get the full identity study on the Jumio site.

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