UC Merced Magazine | Volume XX, Issue VI

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less about the candidates, it’s easier for misinformation to have an impact.” e issue has become so concerning that lawmakers are searching for ways to ght misinformation legislatively. Gov. Gavin Newsom in September signed three measures aimed at removing deceptive content from large online platforms, increasing accountability and better informing voters. “Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation — especially in today’s fraught political climate," Newsom said. " ese measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI.” e California Secretary of State has an o ce of elections cybersecurity, which monitors false or misleading information about elections published online or elsewhere. But some lawmakers fear that e orts to weed out fake information could infringe on people’s First Amendment rights. Legislating AI is challenging but not impossible, Ojeda said. “You can see a world in which companies such as X and Facebook take more ownership over the information they carry, that users

don’t have to gure it out for themselves,” he said. “It’s hard work but I think it’s possible.” Reliable Sources Fortunately, there are ways voters can distinguish good information from bad on their own, Ojeda said. One is fact-checking, which involves going to known reputable sources to clarify whether some claim oating around the internet is true. Fact-checking websites such as Snopes, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org can be tools in this e ort. Other processes can be less laborious, Ojeda said. “You could just ask a friend, ‘What do you think?’ e friend may not know but at least you’re getting another opinion,” he said. “ ey can make you feel more skeptical.” Also, voters should keep an open mind. “It’s a challenge for sure,” Ojeda said. “If I support this candidate, I want to believe that they are good and the other candidate is bad.” He recommended getting information from a wide variety of reputable sources. “Information literacy is so important,” he said. “Knowing where to nd credible information. Knowing what apps and websites are more likely to have misinformation. If you have that sort of literacy, you’re already in a good position to begin to gure out or navigate AI as you’re thinking about the elections.”

It wasn’t like there was some bad actor out there.” Concerns about unreliable sources and misinformation have been growing, particularly as social media and other online avenues increasingly replace traditional sources for news. A recent poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that California registered voters get most of their election information from voter guides and news organizations but they use Google and other search engines almost as much as newspapers and magazines. According to the Los Angeles Times, citing a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, four in 10 Americans who get news from social media say they dislike the inaccuracy, up from three in 10 in 2018. A er the 2016 presidential election, about a quarter of Americans said they shared fabricated news stories, knowingly or unknowingly. Legislating a New Frontier ough many people immediately think of the top-of-the-ticket races as rife with misinformation, the bigger risk lies with smaller races, Ojeda said. “We all focus on the presidential election,” he said. “It’s the biggest political o ce in the world.” But most people already know who will get their vote for president. “It’s harder for misinformation to really sway the presidential election because we already know so much about it,” Ojeda said. “For local races, for congressional races, where we know

Information literacy is so important. — Professor Christopher Ojeda

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