Risk in Focus: Generative A.I. and the 2024 Election Cycle

As generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities become more widely adopted, it is important for election officials to understand how these capabilities could impact the security and integrity of election infrastructure. AI capabilities present opportunities for increased productivity, potentially enhancing both election security and election administration. However, these capabilities also carry the increased potential for greater harm, as malicious actors, including foreign nation state actors and cybercriminals, could leverage these same capabilities for nefarious purposes. For the 2024 election cycle, generative AI capabilities will likely not introduce new risks, but they may amplify existing risks to election infrastructure. Election officials have the power to mitigate against these risks heading into 2024, and many of these mitigations are the same security best practices experts have recommended taking for years. This fact sheet provides an overview of relevant generative AI-enabled capabilities, how these capabilities can be used by malicious actors to target the security and integrity of election infrastructure, and basic mitigations to counter the enhanced risks from generative AI-enabled capabilities.