AI in Elections: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Road Ahead
India is the world's largest democracy, and conducting free and fair elections is a mammoth task shouldered by the Election Commission of India. But technology is transforming every aspect of the electoral process in the digital age, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) being integrated into campaigns, voter engagement, and election monitoring. In the upcoming Bihar elections of 2025, all eyes are on how the use of AI will influence the state polls and the precedent it will set for future elections.
Opportunities: Harnessing AI for Better Elections
Breaking Language Barriers with AI:
AI is reshaping political outreach by making speeches accessible in multiple languages. At the Kashi Tamil Sangamam in 2024, the PM’s Hindi address was AI-dubbed in Tamil in real time. Since then, several speeches have been rolled out in eight languages, ensuring inclusivity and connecting with voters beyond Hindi-speaking regions more effectively.
Monitoring and Transparency
During Bihar’s Panchayat polls, the State Election Commission used Staqu’s JARVIS, an AI-powered system that connects with CCTV cameras to monitor EVM screens in real time. By reducing human error, JARVIS brought greater accuracy, speed, and trust to the counting process.
AI for Information Access on Public Service Delivery
NaMo AI is a multilingual chatbot that citizens can use to inquire about the details of public services. The feature aims to make government schemes easy to understand, transparent, and help voters connect directly with the policies of the government.
Personalised Campaigning
AI is transforming how campaigns connect with voters. By analysing demographics and social media activity, AI builds detailed voter profiles. This helps craft messages that feel personal, whether on WhatsApp, a robocall, or a social media post, ensuring each group hears what matters most to them. This aims to make political outreach sharper and more effective.
Challenges: The Dark Side of AI in Elections
Deepfakes and Disinformation
AI-powered deepfakes create hyper-realistic videos and audio that are nearly impossible to distinguish from the real. In elections, they can distort public perception, damage reputations, or fuel disharmony on social media. There is a need for mandatory disclaimers stating when content is AI-generated, to ensure transparency and protect voters from manipulative misinformation.
Data Privacy and Behavioural Manipulation
Cambridge Analytica’s consulting services, provided by harvesting the data of millions of users from Facebook without their consent, revealed how personal data can be weaponised in politics. This data was allegedly used to “microtarget” users through ads, which could influence their political opinions. Data mining of this nature can be supercharged through AI models, jeopardising user privacy, trust, safety, and casting a shadow on democratic processes worldwide.
Algorithmic Bias
AI systems are trained on datasets. If the datasets contain biases, AI-driven tools could unintentionally reinforce stereotypes or favor certain groups, leading to unfair outcomes in campaigning or voter engagement.
The Road Ahead: Striking a Balance
The adoption of AI in elections opens a Pandora's box of uncertainties. On the one hand, it offers solutions for breaking language barriers and promoting inclusivity. On the other hand, it opens the door to manipulation and privacy violations.
To counter risks from deepfakes and synthetic content, political parties are now advised to clearly label AI-generated materials and add disclaimers in their campaign messaging. In Delhi, a nodal officer has even been appointed to monitor social media misuse, including the circulation of deepfake videos during elections. The Election Commission of India constantly has to keep up with trends and tactics used by political parties to ensure that elections remain free and fair.
Conclusion
With Bihar’s pioneering experiments with JARVIS in Panchayat elections to give vote counting more accuracy and speed, India is witnessing both sides of this technological revolution. The challenge lies in ensuring that AI strengthens democracy rather than undermining it. Deepfakes algorithms, bias, and data misuse remind us of the risk of when technology oversteps. The real challenge is to strike the right balance in embracing AI for elections to enhance inclusivity and transparency, while safeguarding trust, privacy, and the integrity of democratic processes.
References
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/how-ai-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-election-campaign-in-india/articleshow/120848499.cms#
- https://m.economictimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/india/2024-polls-stand-out-for-use-of-ai-to-bridge-language-barriers/articleshow/108737700.cms
- https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/namo-ai-on-namo-app-a-unique-chatbot-that-will-answer-everything-on-pm-modi-govt-schemes-achievements-5426028
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/staqu-deploys-jarvis-to-facilitate-automated-vote-counting-for-bihar-panchayat-polls/articleshow/87307475.cms
- https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/deepfakes-in-elections-challenges-and-mitigation
- https://internetpolicy.mit.edu/blog-2018-fb-cambridgeanalytica/
- https://www.deccanherald.com/elections/delhi/delhi-assembly-elections-2025-use-ai-transparently-eci-issues-guidelines-for-political-parties-3357978#