As digital communications have proliferated across the world, there has been a rise of misinformation and disinformation spread on the internet, including social media. As artificial intelligence continues to get more realistic, verifying video and audio materials will become more and more challenging, leading to significant difficulties in verifying information.
The repercussions of this will be immeasurable, and it will have a debilitating affect on societal and political discourse. We are already seeing the first examples of this cropping up in politics across the world, from the Sudanese Civil War to Ukrainian-US diplomatic relations in the Trump-Zelensky row.
Sudan Civil War – AI Voice Cloning and Deepfake Photographs
In August 2023, an anonymous account called ‘The Voice of Sudan’ began posting dozens of audio clips online, emulating the voice of Sudan’s former leader Omar al-Bashir. The account claimed that these clips were ‘leaked recordings’ of Omar al-Bashir, but were in fact fake AI-generated content.
The clips are particularly disruptive given that al-Bashir had not appeared publicly for over a year prior to the clips surfacing. He was toppled in a military coup in 2019 on accusations of organising war crimes.
The ‘Voice of Sudan’ account featured old news clips, current news reports and these fake audio clips, furthering the confusion around them.
“What’s alarming is that these recordings could also create an environment where many disbelieve even real recordings,”
– Mohamed Suliman – Northeastern University’s Civic AI Lab Researcher
In April 2024, an image began circulating on Facebook, which allegedly depicted a building engulfed in flames in Sudan. Captions claimed that the building was part of Al-Jazeera University in Wad Madani, and had been bombed by the Sudanese army.
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