(WXYZ) — This election season, political and artificial intelligence experts agree on one thing: more than ever before, A.I. will be used as a tool to spread misinformation.
The primary focus of concern is how A.I.-generated voices and “deepfakes” will be used to distribute calls and videos created to harm a candidate’s campaign.
Related: A.I. Week: The future is here and it's cloning your voice
For instance, just this past month in New Hampshire, robocalls with a clone of President Biden’s voice were being used to discourage people from voting in the primary election. The calls were ultimately traced back to a Texas telemarketing company.
Artificial intelligence voice cloning is becoming more and more realistic, posing a threat to the upcoming presidential election.
Watch: Here's how artificial intelligence can clone your voice:
Just five minutes, that’s all State Representative Penelope Tsernoglou tells me it took to create the voice clone of President Biden, a clone that could potentially mislead people.
Tsernoglou had the clone made to show to Michigan policy makers when advocating for her bill package that regulates deep fakes, and other A.I. generated political campaign materials.
Watch: Listen to A.I.'s voice cloning of President Biden in the player below:
"Someone could easily use the technology to have a candidate saying things that we wouldn’t want to see a candidate saying out in the public space and that the candidate wouldn’t say," said Rep. Tsernoglou.
Tsernoglou’s bills passed, so now this election season any political advertisement in Michigan made with A.I. technology must include a statement disclosing that A.I. was used.
It comes as the Federal Communications Commission has been investigating A.I. generated robocalls impersonating Biden urging people not to vote in the primaries but to “save your vote” until the November election.
Kirsta Frye and Asia Jackson, Detroit and New York voters, were surprised that A.I. made a voice clone recording of President Biden, convinced it was him.
"Wow, OK," said Asia when she found out it was fake.
Detroit voter Roy Luetzow wasn't too convinced.
"Only close, not really," he said.
He added, "A.I. is coming to us all whether we like it or not."
I asked if people were worried about A.I. and the spread of misinformation.
"Initially it sounds scary, absolutely. I think it’s unfortunately one of those things where, given the day and age that we live in, these are kind of progressions ... So unfortunately I feel the responsibility is still on the citizen," said Krista.
According to internet ethics expert Irina Raicu, more citizens than ever will likely be tested this election cycle.
"We are in a situation now which is kind of a perfect storm; we have a year in which 60 countries are having elections," said Raicu, who is the director of internet ethics at Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
Raicu tells me that across the world voters are starting to be targeted by more and more of these clones.
Some are targeted on social media and share the content, unknowingly spreading lies.
"We have the social media platforms that have been totally inadequate at preventing the spread and then we have all the users, all of us, who are not educated enough who fall for them and who have this sort of trigger reaction sometimes to share things that shock us," she said.
More laws are being worked on. At the moment, Tsernoglou tells me there’s another bill coming through the Michigan Senate that regulates specifically calls using artificial intelligence that tell people where they can vote.
"We don’t want people to be mislead and going to the wrong polling places or getting the wrong information," said Rep. Tsernoglou.
So whether you’re voting independent, Republican, or Democrat, it’s up to you this election cycle to make sure that the information influencing your vote isn’t artificial.
