The UK home secretary James Cleverly warned about the potential impact of deepfake videos generated using artificial intelligence (AI) being used to sway voters. 

The warning comes ahead of Cleverly’s meetings with leaders in Silicon Valley this week, which was organised in response to the growing challenges around misinformation, digital fraud, and digital exploitation and crime.

As the UK gears up for its upcoming general election around October this year, Cleverly emphasised the looming threat posed by hostile countries, which could flood social media with convincing deepfake videos in an attempt to sway public opinion. 

“The era of deepfake and AI-generated content to mislead and disrupt is already in play,” said Cleverly according to The Times. “Increasingly today the battle of ideas and policies takes place in the ever-changing and expanding digital sphere.”

Despite recent efforts by tech giants including Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI to collaborate in combating deceptive AI content, no explicit commitments have been made to ban deepfake videos. 

In response to mounting concerns, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has pledged to establish a dedicated team to tackle disinformation and abuse of AI ahead of the EU elections. 

“The questions asked about digital content and the sources of digital content are no less relevant than those asked about the content and sources at dispatch boxes, newsrooms, or billboard ads,” he said.

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan echoed Cleverly’s concerns just earlier this month, stressing that the current regulatory framework is inadequate to address the threat posed by deepfakes.

“It’s not an issue of policing, it’s an issue of legislation and regulation,” he said.

“My worry is, in a close election, a close referendum, these sorts of deepfake videos and audios can be the difference, but also my concern is, there are sometimes examples where these sorts of deepfake audios can lead to serious disturbances, particularly when emotions are running high.”