This photo never happened: AI fakes and the 2027 election
INEC has set up an AI unit to detect deepfakes and warns that “the hacking of the voter's mind” is the greatest threat. Here are the fakes Nigerians have already been shown, what to watch for, and five checks before you share.
INEC's warning: chairman Joash Amupitan told an AI and democracy forum in Abuja that “the greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter's mind.” INEC has set up an AI unit in its ICT directorate to detect deepfakes, and says collation, accreditation and candidate checks stay with humans: “Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote.”
The newsroom problem: speaking to editors in Enugu in September, Amupitan said voice cloning, deepfake video and bot networks “have democratised mass deception”, and that “when deepfakes render lies believable, real truth is greeted with skepticism.” He urged the media to verify first and resist premature result declarations.
Already here: Dubawa found that a video of Donald Trump talking about Tinubu's government still carried an AI app's watermark (“Made with TryParrotAI”) over old interview footage. An AI video of Tinubu replying to Trump misled many despite its disclaimer. After the Kaduna rally, Tinubu's campaign said opponents planned deepfake videos; no evidence for that claim has been made public.
What to watch for: cloned voice notes, deepfake videos, fake result sheets that appear before INEC has declared anything, and old clips shared as if they are new.
Five checks before you share: (1) watch the mouth: do the lips match the voice? (2) look at the edges: blurry teeth, odd hands, app watermarks; (3) who else reported it? (4) search a screenshot with Google Lens or TinEye; (5) results come from INEC, not a WhatsApp forward.
The real target is you: NITDA's DG Kashifu Inuwa says it is now “easier for malicious actors to exploit human psychology than to breach hardened technical systems.” Pause. Check. Then share.
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