Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment the Defending Democracy Taskforce has made of the implications for its work of the use of AI in election campaigns in (a) Pakistan and (b) Indonesia.

The Defending Democracy Taskforce (DDTF) is committed to working with international partners to build collective democratic resilience and share best practice to tackle shared challenges including from dis/misinformation and AI.

In Indonesia, the UK is working with the government and civil society to strengthen their democratic processes against threats. We are also working with Indonesia to progress work on AI safety, following the AI Safety Summit in November 2023.

In Pakistan, the FCDO supported efforts to counter the influence of disinformation in the electoral process through the CSSF Hate Speech and Disinformation Programme, which supported the development of a fact-checking tool called iVerify.

The UK will continue to work with international partners holding elections this year to exchange best practice on shared threats to our election systems, including from AI. We will continue to monitor international electoral events to inform our work to protect the UK from interference in our democratic process, including elections.