AI-generated images: 'We know how they did it' - INEC reveals those responsible

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has identified some of its registration officers across the country as responsible for irregularities involving suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs and questionable entries in the preliminary voters’ register.

INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, ICT, Dr Lawrence Bayode, disclosed this on Friday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show.

Bayode explained that some registration officers allegedly used their official login details to introduce irregularities into the voter registration system.

According to him, the commission discovered that the problem was not limited to one location, as some registration officers across different states were involved in questionable registration practices.

“I can tell you how this AI-generated photo found its way onto the register. Number one, you know we have registration officers on the field, and these registration officers have login details to log into the system.

“So, what we have found out was that some of these registration officers are not only in the place that we are seeing, even on social media, some of them, not all of them now, some of them across the states, nationwide. They’ve done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register,” he said.

The INEC director explained that the commission’s Automated Biometric System, ABS, detected several questionable entries before the publication of the preliminary voters’ register.

He said the commission had been working to clean up the register while trying to meet the statutory 90-day deadline for publishing the preliminary register.

Bayode, however, clarified that not all the questionable photographs were generated by artificial intelligence, noting that some resulted from poor registration practices.

“Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them are not AI-generated, but very bad registration, and this thing got into the register by the registration officers, and because they have access to register people,” he added.

He further disclosed that the commission had identified how some of the irregularities were introduced into the system through its automated checks.

“When the ABS was run on the system, we saw these people, we know what they did. We know how they did it, but honestly, I don’t know why,” Bayode said.

DAILY POST reports that the controversy over suspected AI-generated photographs and questionable identities in INEC’s preliminary voters’ register has triggered concerns among political stakeholders ahead of the 2027 general elections.