AI deepfakes a top concern for election officials with voting underway [Video]

In the final weeks of a divisive, high-stakes campaign season, state election officials in political battleground states say they are bracing for the unpredictable and emergent threat posed by artificial intelligence, or AI.

“The number one concern we have on Election Day are some of the challenges that we have yet to face,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said. “There are some uncertainties, particularly with generative artificial intelligence and the ways that those might be used.”

Fontes, a Democrat, said his office is aware that some campaigns are already using AI as a tool in his hotly contested state and that election administrators urgently need to familiarize themselves with what is real and what is not.

“We’re training all of our election officials, to make sure that they’re …