Generative AI and its Influence on India's 2024 Elections
The paper explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) was utilized in the 2024 general elections in India, a year marked by a significant increase in the use of technology in political campaigns. The widespread use of AI tools globally during the „super election year,“ a term coined by the UNDP, raised questions about their impact on democratic processes. In the Indian elections, key applications included deepfake technology, targeted voter outreach, and AI-generated campaign materials. AI was employed both positively – enhancing the effectiveness of campaign outreach and enabling customized messaging – and negatively, allowing campaigners to amplify propaganda and spread deceptive content and misinformation to the masses, which was not possible in previous election campaigns.
