Microsoft has pledged to use the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) final list of candidates for the 2027 general election to help prevent its artificial intelligence tools from generating misleading images of politicians contesting the polls.
The commitment was announced in the outcome document of the AI and Democracy Forum (AIDF) 2026, held in Abuja from October 14 to 16.
The initiative is part of efforts to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence to spread false information, impersonate political candidates and influence voters ahead of the elections.
The move comes as Nigeria prepares for another general election, with concerns growing over the ability of AI tools to produce convincing but fabricated images, videos and audio recordings.
Such content could be used to falsely portray candidates as making statements or taking actions they never made or took.
By incorporating INEC’s official candidate list into its systems, Microsoft is expected to strengthen safeguards against the creation of deceptive images involving recognised candidates.
However, the commitment forms part of a broader response to election-related misinformation and does not, by itself, address every form of synthetic media that could circulate online.
The forum’s outcome document outlined three major commitments involving INEC, Microsoft and the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC).
It also presented 13 recommendations for electoral authorities, political parties, technology companies, civil society organisations, the media, security agencies, the judiciary and development partners.
The forum was jointly organised by Yiaga Africa, INEC, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and Dataphyte Foundation.
It received support from several organisations, including Microsoft, Google, TikTok, Luminate, the MacArthur Foundation, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
Yiaga Africa’s Executive Director, Samson Itodo, said more than 350 participants attended the event.
Electoral officials from Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Guinea and Togo also participated. Abdoulaye Sylla, chairperson of ECONEC and Senegal’s electoral commission, was among those present, according to INEC.
The forum took place under the theme, “Will Algorithms Determine the 2027 Vote? Safeguarding Nigeria’s 2027 General Election in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”.
Speaking at the opening session on Wednesday, October 14, INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, warned against allowing artificial intelligence to determine the outcome of Nigeria’s democratic process.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” Amupitan said.
He acknowledged that AI could help process information and identify patterns but maintained that electoral decisions must remain under human control.
“Algorithms may predict patterns; they may optimise routes, and they may even suggest preferences. But they do not have a conscience, they do not have a country, and they do not have a vote,” he said.
The INEC chairman also warned that the manipulation of public opinion could pose a serious danger to the credibility of the elections.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” he said.
Amupitan described artificial intelligence as “a servant of democracy, not its master”, stressing the need to deploy emerging technologies without compromising the integrity of the electoral process.
Nigeria is expected to have more than 103 million registered voters participating in the 2027 general election, with 176,846 polling units identified in the forum’s outcome document.
The scale of the exercise makes the circulation of false electoral information a major concern for INEC and other stakeholders.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for Saturday, January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections are expected to hold on Saturday, February 6, 2027.
