The Election Commission on Thursday told political parties to prominently label photos, videos and any other content generated through artificial intelligence.

The directive came two days after the Delhi Police filed a case against the Aam Aadmi Party for posting artificial intelligence-generated photos and videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, PTI reported.

The Delhi Assembly election, in which the Aam Aadmi Party will take on the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, will be held on February 5. The counting of votes will take place on February 8.

The poll panel on Thursday told political parties to label any content generated or significantly altered by artificial intelligence with notations saying “AI-Generated”, “Digitally Enhanced” or Synthetic Content”.

All campaign advertisements or promotional content in which artificial intelligence is used also must have a disclaimer to that effect, the Election Commission said.

The poll panel noted that on May 6, amid the 2024 Lok Sabha election, it had issued guidelines to political parties, urging them not to use artificial intelligence-generated content that would spread misinformation during campaigning.

“However, now considering the deepening influence of AI generated/synthetic content in shaping public opinion, the Election Commission of India advises all political parties…to also take necessary measures for prominent labelling of AI-generated/synthetic content, if any, being shared for campaigning through their social media platforms and other media platforms,” it said.

Case against AAP

The videos for which the Delhi Police filed the case against the Aam Aadmi Party were posted by the party on January 10 and January 13, PTI reported.

One of the videos showed a scene from the 1990s Hindi film, in which artificial intelligence software was used to swap the faces of the villains for BJP leaders and to change the dialogues to those about the Delhi polls, the agency quoted an unidentified police official as saying.

The Aam Aadmi Party claimed that filing false cases was the BJP’s standard operating procedure ahead of elections. It asked why cases were not filed against BJP leaders who were allegedly involved in manipulating voters lists or handing out cash or gifts in exchange for votes.