Safeguarding Australian elections: addressing AI-enabled disinformation

On 6 February, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Alan Turing Institute’s Centre for Emerging Technology and Security, co-hosted the public event ‘Safeguarding Australian elections: Addressing AI-enabled disinformation’, exploring the intersection of AI, electoral integrity and democratic resilience. As artificial intelligence (AI) advances, it creates new challenges for democracy and electoral integrity. AI-enabled disinformation, deepfakes, and influence operations are increasingly being weaponised to distort political discourse and erode public trust. With Australia's 2025 federal elections approaching, it is essential to understand the implications of these threats and develop strategies to address them. ASPI Senior Fellow Karly Winkler was joined by panellists Kate Seward (Microsoft ANZ), Antonio Spinelli (International IDEA) and Sam Stockwell (CETaS), to discuss global lessons learned, including findings from the 2024 US presidential election, to identify actionable strategies for safeguarding Australia’s 2025 federal election.