With Election Watch, EPD developed a set of recommendations to guide the European Commission, the European Parliament and legislators through a successful implementation of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). This paper focuses on policy innovations brought by the AI Act. In particular, it analyses the implications of the new rules on the integrity of electoral processes and assesses how the EU intends to regulate AI systems that pose risks to elections.
The purpose of the AI Act is among others to “ensure a high level of protection of health, safety, fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, including democracy, the rule of law and environmental protection, against the harmful effects of the AI systems in the Union”. Adopted by the Council of the EU on 21 May 2024, the AI Act was published in the Official Journal (OJ) of the European Union on 12 July 2024. Until the full entry into application of the AI Act, the Digital Services Coordinators (DSC) and Digital Services Board will play a valuable role in the framework of another legal tool: the European Digital Services Act (DSA) – which also contains rules relevant to countering AI’s impact on elections. So far only two Member States have national legislation providing for the labelling of AI-generated content and require disclaimers, and in seven Member States the use of AI-generated content was detected in online campaigning for elections.
The authors explored which AI systems would be in the scope of the AI Act under the high-risk category as ‘AI systems intended to be used for influencing the outcome of an election or referendum’, and assessed the main risks posed to freedom of information, privacy rights, the independence and secrecy of the vote, and overall, the integrity of elections. The findings build on the EU-wide Election Assessment Mission (EAM) of the citizen observer network of Election-Watch.EU and European Partnership for Democracy’s “Workshop on Identifying AI Systems Posing Risks to Election Integrity under the Artificial Intelligence Act”. This paper addresses the key question of how the EU’s AI Act can be implemented to protect the integrity of elections, privacy rights and the freedom of expression against the impact of interference – especially mal-intended – by AI-supported actors and systems. The purpose is to provide policy guidance to the European Commission (EC) and European legislators by proposing mitigating measures related to the main risks identified.
