Inside AI giants’ Election Day ‘war rooms’

Artificial intelligence firms are on high alert for Election Day, taking a page out of social media firms’ playbook to manage the flurry of information expected online in the coming days.

After a dramatic few months for the AI industry, companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are under pressure to ensure their products are feeding out accurate information to voters.

And in the face of old and new cybersecurity threats, firms say they are also more closely watching for election interference attempts carried out with AI. 

Here’s everything you need to know about how AI firms are preparing for Tuesday’s chaos, including “war rooms.”

In the two years since the last election, talk around AI and the technology’s benefits and risks to society skyrocketed in Washington and on the campaign trail. From policy debates to industry campaign spending to AI-generated ads, AI played a bigger role this midterm cycle than ever before on multiple fronts. 

Research indicates voters are increasingly turning to AI chatbots or AI-generated search results when looking for election information, and they could be trusting these answers.

Like the launch of social media in the 2000s, the use of AI is raising questions over how technology influences the way voters stay informed and whether the public can trust everything they read from an AI chatbot or search result. 

Lawmakers, many of whom are running for reelection, have called on AI firms and social media companies to ensure platforms’ accuracy. 

In a letter to tech CEOs last month, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) wrote, “You are aware of the great responsibility that your companies hold in America’s elections. 

“Your platforms play a significant and important role in sharing, disseminating and in some cases generating information about those elections,” the lawmakers said. 

Four of the country’s largest AI firms spoke publicly in recent months on how they plan to handle the influx of information and changes in real time. 

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