AI firms face pressure to curb Election Day misinformation

Taking a page out of social media firms’ playbook, artificial intelligence firms are on high alert for Election Day amid the threat of misinformation.

The AI industry is facing pressure to ensure their products are feeding out accurate information to voters and aren’t being used for election interference attempts.

From training parameters to image generation limits to “election war rooms,” AI firms are watching out for AI misuse Tuesday evening.

The strategy follows that of Meta, which launched an election war room operation in 2018 to counter misinformation on its social platforms Facebook and Instagram.

In my latest Hill Insider piece , I break down everything you need to know about how AI firms are handling the chaos of Election Day and the aftermath.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter , we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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ChatGPT provided Democracy Works info to voters more than 16 million times this cycle

OpenAI’s ChatGPT gave users Election Day and voting information more than 16 million times this midterm cycle through a partnership with the nonprofit Democracy Works. As of Tuesday afternoon, OpenAI reported that ChatGPT pulled more than 16.5 million times from Democracy Works, a nonprofit that partners with technology firms to provide real-time, accurate information about Election Day. This includes information on registration …

New York attorney general says office monitoring ballot scanning issue in Westchester

Voting machines across polling sites in Westchester County, N.Y., experienced widespread problems Tuesday after ballot scanners stopped accepting votes, according to state officials. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sought to reassure voters after the mishap.“My office is monitoring this issue with scanners in Westchester and is in touch with the state and local Boards of Elections as they work on a solution,” …

OpenAI hires former Army secretary as adviser

OpenAI has hired former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to serve as a senior counselor for national security modernization, the company announced Monday. The ChatGPT maker said Driscoll, who stepped down from his previous role in early September, will advise the AI firm on how the technology can be used to boost national and cybersecurity. His role will focus particularly on working with U.S. allies, including working to “advance …

News we’ve flagged from t he intersection of tech and other topics:

The small nonprofit that ChatGPT relies on for voting information ( NBC News )

Google will turn off search for schools that reject AI ( New York Times )

Fake job interview, malicious code led to $6.3B Binance hack

Binance said Tuesday that a $6.3 billion hack of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was the result of a “multi-stage campaign,” including a malicious software download and a fake job interview.

Hackers, whom both the FBI and outside analysts have linked to North Korea , moved billions of dollars’ worth of crypto out of Binance wallets Thursday, prompting crypto companies to freeze about $3 billion in assets.

In a lengthy post on the social platform X, Binance explained that an engineer initially downloaded tampered code to install a popular AI coding tool in June.

While the company’s security team detected the anomaly, replaced the device and updated credentials, the engineer and his colleagues on their wallet infrastructure team were exposed, Binance said.

In September, another engineer was contacted by an individual posing as a project director through a “legitimate job-hunting platform.”

They arranged an initial interview with an HR representative and another interview with an individual purporting to be the CEO.

During the second interview, the engineer was instructed to download an assignment containing malicious code onto his work computer, which initiated a series of “unauthorized activities.”

Crypto Corner is a daily feature focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.

Branch out with other reads on The Hill:

Democrats accuse Musk’s X of favoring Polymarket

A group of Senate Democrats accused Elon Musk’s social media platform X of giving the prediction market Polymarket “preferential treatment” on its timeline. In a letter to X leadership Friday, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) sent screenshots appearing to show that X does not give users the option to report Polymarket ads. They paired the …

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