The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has explained how the commission intends to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan, who spoke yesterday in Abuja at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, assured fellow Nigerians that the commission had put structures in place to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) serves the democratic process rather than controlling it.
At the event, held in collaboration with Yiaga Africa, the INEC chairman said only Nigerians and not AI will decide the direction of next year’s general election and the next crop of leaders across the country.
Responding to the fears of Nigerians and questions on whether or not AI will decide the 2027 votes, he said: “Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote.”
The INEC chairman explained that the choice of who leads Nigeria belongs exclusively to Nigerians.
He said the commission was no longer dealing only with the “analogue” challenges of logistics but with a world in which AI can influence what a voter sees, how the voter thinks, and how the voter trusts.
Amupitan stressed that though AI would not decide the next elections, this should not conceal the disruptive power of the technology.
The INEC chairman noted that AI would shape the information environment in which citizens form their choices, influence the speed and security of electoral logistics, and alter the tactics of both democratic actors and anti-democratic disruptors.
