The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday approved the creation of an Artificial Intelligence division

This was disclosed in a statement by the commission’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun.

According to the statement, the decision was made at the commission’s regular weekly meeting held on Thursday, considering the increasing relevance of Artificial Intelligence to elections and electoral activities in the country and globally.

Mr Olumekun said, “The commission approved the creation of an Artificial Intelligence Division under the ICT Department to continue to harness the positive aspects of AI and mitigate its negative impact on elections.

“The division will enable the commission to better coordinate and maximise existing technology investments through centralised AI governance. It will also enhance decision-making through data-driven insights, risk management and voter engagement. Furthermore, it will strengthen electoral credibility through predictive analytics, automation and intelligent safeguards.”

He said the commission attended several conferences and interacted with colleagues around the continent on the impact of AI on elections, not only motivated by the concern over the use of AI to spread fake news or manipulate content online, “but also to utilise its benefits for data-driven decision-making, risk detection and mitigation, deepening voter services automation and geo-spatial intelligence in support of logistic optimisation for better material distribution and polling unit allocation.”

Mr Olumekun said the initiative puts INEC at the forefront of institutionalising AI capabilities within its ICT infrastructure, adding that it was an important step in the commission’s ongoing reform of the electoral process in areas that only require its administrative action.