Deepfakes in Israeli elections

As Israeli elections approached, the Israeli economic daily Globes highlighted the increasing use of deepfakes in electoral propaganda. These are images or videos created or modified using artificial intelligence (AI) to promote a candidate or damage an opponent's reputation.

AI's rapid growth in political campaigns

Globes described the use of AI in the final days before the October 27 vote as a "digital blitz," noting a spectacular acceleration in AI-generated content. This trend had been previously identified by another Israeli economic daily, Calcalist, which reported on the scale of AI's involvement in the election process.

Extent of AI-generated content

Calcalist revealed that AI had already become deeply integrated into the election campaign. According to the newspaper, 13% of the content from political figures was generated by AI. This included nearly 1,100 out of 8,611 publications recorded since July 28, which had been created or partially created using AI technology.

Likud leads in AI-generated content

The Likud party was found to dominate the use of AI-generated content, with 70% of the identified material attributed to it. This was largely due to the campaign for the party's internal primaries, which relied heavily on AI to produce political content.

AI use across the political spectrum

The use of AI in political campaigns was not limited to Likud. It extended across the entire political landscape, from left-wing parties such as the Democrats of Yair Golan to right-wing parties like Israel Beitenou led by Avigdor Lieberman. This indicates a broad and growing reliance on AI in Israeli electoral politics.