The Independent National Electoral Commission has assured Nigerians that artificial intelligence will not determine the outcome of the 2027 general elections, stressing that critical electoral decisions will remain under human control.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, gave the assurance on Wednesday while delivering the keynote address at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 in Abuja.
According to the commission’s Wednesday bulletin, the forum was organised in collaboration with Yiaga Africa to examine the implications of artificial intelligence for elections and democracy.
Amupitan said voter accreditation, result collation and decisions on candidates’ qualifications would not be left entirely to automated systems.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” he said, adding that Nigerians alone had the right to choose their leaders.
He explained that human oversight, legal procedures and judicial review would remain central to the electoral process.
However, the INEC chairman warned that the growing use of AI posed serious threats to electoral credibility, particularly through the spread of deepfakes, cloned audio recordings and other forms of disinformation.
He said advances in generative AI had made it easier to create convincing videos of candidates making statements they never made or impersonate electoral officials to circulate false information.
