MANILA, Philippines – As the Philippines’ 2025 midterm elections approaches, there’s anxiety over the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the democratic exercise.

In a #FactsFirstPH workshop at the Rappler HQ on Thursday, October 17, members of news media and civil society groups expressed fears that AI may be used to spread disinformation to boost the campaigns of candidates.

What can people do about these fears? For Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) Executive Director Ona Caritos, “we need to study what we are afraid of.”

“I think the number one challenge right now with AI is people are so afraid of it and they don’t want anything to do with it,” Caritos said.

“AI has been and will always be part of our lives moving forward. Being afraid is an okay reaction but I think we need to study, we need to prepare — especially election monitoring organizations. There is a need to capacitate ourselves on how AI can be used for good and how it can be used for bad.” [READ: To fix the future, don’t treat tech as enemy, says author Andrew Keen]

In Brighton, United Kingdom, voters saw for the first time an AI candidate on their ballots in their elections last July — businessman Steve Endacott, who ran for parliament with an AI alter ego “AI Steve.”

“AI Steve” engaged real-time with locals on topics like LGBTQ rights, housing, bin collection, and immigration, putting out policy ideas then asking for their suggestions.

On the other hand, Prabowo Subianto, who was elected Indonesian president last February, used generative AI to brand himself as a “cuddly grandpa,” in a bid to appeal to Gen Z voters. Older Indonesians, however, remember Prabowo for his human rights abuses during the Suharto dictatorship.

In India’s recent national elections last June, “over 70%” of AI-generated disinformation were “voice clones,” a cheaper way to produce false claims, said Jency Jacob of India-based organization BOOM.

Election guidelines on AI use ‘should not just end on paper’

On September 17, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) promulgated a resolution detailing guidelines on the use of AI in the 2025 elections.

The guidelines include required disclosure of AI use in political campaigns; registration of candidates’ social media accounts with the Comelec; and prohibited use of bots, deepfakes, and coordinated inauthentic behavior, among others. [READ: Philippine poll chief wants ban on deepfakes for 2025 elections]

While Caritos called the move “progressive,” University of the Philippines Visayas associate professor Zoilo Andrada said he hoped that the Comelec resolution “will not just end on paper.”

“I just want to give this challenge to the Comelec. Kasi ganoon na lang palagi ang ginagawa eh, resolution, resolution, pero wala namang concrete na action (Because this has happened a lot, resolution here, resolution that, but no concrete action has happened),” he said.

In the 2022 elections, Comelec also released guidelines surrounding social media use, such as banning microtargeting and requiring candidates to register their social media pages. The resolution led to little success. Research even showed that the election campaign of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was boosted by years-long disinformation that whitewashed the image of his family and the dictatorial rule of his father.

Rappler lead researcher on disinformation and platforms Gemma Mendoza also pointed out that looking out for violations on social media is going to be difficult, no thanks to the shutdown of monitoring tools like CrowdTangle. 

Candidates registering their social media pages may not also aid in curbing disinformation, Mendoza added, as disinformation usually comes from unknown, newly set-up accounts.

Caritos suggested that the Comelec set up a “social media unit” within its education and information department to effectively implement their 2025 election guidelines.

“This will not be the first time that they will be implementing this resolution,” the LENTE chief said. “This social media unit will have a bigger role by the 2028 elections. So, that’s what we can do. Push Comelec to allocate more resources, more budget.” – Rappler.com