The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has said that despite claims alleging that the Chairman, Joash Amupitan, made a partisan post on X, no verified forensic evidence links him to the said post.
The Director of Information and Communication Technology , Lawrence Bayode, stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s, The Morning Brief on Monday.
“Even though we are seeing that some guys have carried out a forensic investigation on that account, as we speak, there is no verified forensic evidence linking the chairman to the post,” he said.
His comment follows the alleged post of the INEC chairman, allegedly expressing support for the All Progressive Congress (APC) during the 2023 general elections.
The director, however, stated that the matter would not be swept under the rug; rather, it had been referred to security agencies for further investigations.
“We are taking this further even though we have referred this to security agencies, and as I said, we rely on evidence. We are also going to be engaging a third-party forensic expert to help look at this.
“We are also looking at it in-house. I will not base my judgment on the screenshot; I will not allow that to guide my conclusion.
“I know that the commission will engage a third-party expert to also look at this, and that will guide the conclusion of the commission,” Bayode said.
Speaking further, the INEC tech chief said Grok could hallucinate.
“Grok honestly can hallucinate just like any modern artificial intelligence system, and I think the key is to verify important information, especially for decision or public communication.
“So any AI system can hallucinate, and so Grok can also hallucinate,” he stated.
Bayode also noted that a social media account could be opened using someone else’s email address.
“If people can hack into your system if it’s not well protected, if not for a time like this where our social media platforms are protected by two-factor authentication,” he added.
The ICT director also explained that the issue appeared to be more than it seemed, suggesting that it could be a case of digital impersonation.
“That account was renamed; the content there, maybe, would have been manipulated again.
He also spoke about how digital impersonation and content manipulation can ‘mislead the public.’
“I think all these are in the public domain, so anyone who wants to create havoc can use all of this information and use it as they will, Bayode added.
