• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 3, 2023

AIandYou, a nonprofit that Mark Zuckerberg funded partly through his philanthropic organization, has launched an advertising campaign focused on helping people identify misinformation and synthetic images around the 2024 election generated by artificial intelligence (AI) -- from realistic images to cloned human voices.

The campaign targets multicultural and other voters who overwhelmingly vote as Democrats.

According to AIandYou, the campaign is the first multicultural public awareness message on AI and the 2024 election, according to the nonprofit’s website.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’s organization, is listed as a supporter of AIandYou on the non-profit's website. The nonprofit has awarded $125,000 since 2020, according to Daily Caller, which first pointed to the grants database.

Consumers look for inclusive behavior from candidates as well as brands and retailers. Some 42% of participants in a survey conducted by Aki Technologies said diversity, equity, and inclusivity will be more of a priority for them in the coming years, with 55% saying they expect it to be more of a priority for brands in the coming years. 

About 53% of participants said they are, or would be, more loyal to brands and/or retailers that appear to be authentically diverse or inclusive, and 42% of consumers said they have shopped with a specific brand because of its level of inclusivity in advertising. The same would apply to electoral candidates.

The AIandYou multimedia, multicultural campaign aims to educate voters about misinformation and how to leverage AI tools to get out the vote.

The initiative centers on young voters of color and women, because of their electoral significance.

The non-profit’s goal is to “demystify new technologies by helping people understand how they engage with AI in a way that is easy to understand by analyzing “the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI, including how it influences online safety, education, elections, health, housing, jobs, finances, and more.”

A video on the organization’s website focuses on how voters can protect their vote against AI and misinformation.

The message in the video describes the use of personalized ad targeting and how information is manipulated to trick voters including the use of deepfakes to create false statements, and make sure to research anything seen or heard pertaining to the 2024 election.

AIandYou plans to launch a deepfake early in 2024 based on AI-generated ads to help voters familiarize themselves with the technology and content.

José Villa, president of Sensis, an ad agency working on the campaign, told Politico that the ads are still being developed, but one might focus on President Joe Biden saying something he didn’t say, with a message at the end that identifies the content as misinformation.