Safeguarding elections in the age of AI

The first artificial intelligence (AI) election year is here, and we need your help to preserve democracy.

Will we be able to trust what we read and what we hear in the coming months? How will we decide what is true? AI is ubiquitous and will likely be a factor in elections in more than 50 nations this year.

Voter confidence and election security is paramount. We urge you to be an informed voter and read a special report that highlights RIT experts and their tips to prepare for upcoming elections.

Justin Pelletier, director of RIT’s ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute Cyber Range and Training Center, has some advice: “The most critical voting machine is your brain. Don’t let your opinions get hacked.”

Beyond elections, AI is an engine of innovation that is driving scientific discovery and economic growth. AI is one of the most significant advances of our time. RIT is well positioned to play an integral role in teaching and innovation in AI in a multitude of forms.

Along with our core strengths in technology and experiential learning, we have complementary strengths in the arts and design, making RIT a unique environment to study, build, and test AI. We must pursue our work through ethical and socio-technical lenses.

To synergize our activities, we have created an AI task force that is helping shape our work in the areas of research, scholarship and innovation, teaching and curriculum, and experiential AI on campus. Go to rit.edu/AI to see our vision and strategic direction.

Breakthroughs in AI will change the way we teach our classes and will alter much of our curriculum. Researchers will employ AI techniques in a multitude of application areas, making major leaps in discovery and innovation. And yet the most intriguing effects of AI at RIT may be on community life and in our business operations.

We already have faculty and staff members using AI in their daily work. This is just the tip of the iceberg. You can imagine AI buddies and smart, mobile robots transforming campus life over the next 10 to 20 years.

We are starting to see this future emerge in industrial and healthcare settings, so I think we’re in a great position to anticipate what is to come. Overall, we aspire to be a leading AI university, working within an ethical framework to invent a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable future.

Let’s perpetually create the future in new ways. And don’t forget Justin’s advice as you do your pre-election homework.

Yours in Tiger pride,

David C. Munson Jr., President

munson@rit.edu