The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed artificial intelligence-generated photographs uploaded to the national voters’ register and flagged officials implicated in the practice across 10 states for disciplinary action.
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INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this on Wednesday during a webinar titled, ‘AI, Misinformation and Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Safeguarding the Truth, Protecting the Vote’.
Haruna, who is also Chairman of the commission’s Information and Voter Education Committee, described the development as a major challenge, noting that the commission had already taken down AI-generated photographs identified on the voters’ register.
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He, however, acknowledged that INEC faced limitations in preventing members of the public from manipulating or enhancing their photographs before uploading them during voter registration.
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The commissioner said the commission had also identified cases involving its own personnel and was taking steps to address the violations.
“We have already seen one of the challenges, which is that a lot of AI-generated photographs were posted onto the voters’ register, which, as we have said, we have had to take down,” he said.
Haruna explained that while it might be difficult for the commission to prevent members of the public from manipulating their photographs before submission, it had greater control over violations involving its officials.
“But the ones involving our own staff, where it is our own staff that did so, that one is within our control. We are in the process of addressing it. They have been flagged,” he said.