The U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, stated that the USA is committed to helping Kosovo improve the integrity of information and protect against destructive cyber attacks.
He made these statements at the 7th edition of the Information Integrity Conference “DISICON,” adding that Artificial Intelligence can also be used in democratic processes to improve voting processes.
“We leaders must ensure that democratic systems benefit from accurate and responsible information. We must ensure that those who sow distrust do not succeed. Artificial Intelligence can support our democratic processes by helping us improve the voter registration process, simplify the number of votes, and detect and combat misinformation. I hope you will enable us to use these tools better,” he said.
He added that care must be taken in using these technologies as they can be misused.
He further stated that the USA is committed to supporting civil societies as well as independent media to develop new financing models to continue providing accurate information to citizens in the future.
Hovenier also mentioned that they recently signed two bilateral memorandums of understanding with the Government of Kosovo to increase cooperation between governments in combating information manipulation from outside sources.
“I want to assure you that the USA is paying close attention to this issue. We must identify problems. This is an important step to move from analysis to action in addressing issues. Our support is part of broader efforts to help democratic societies in Kosovo by improving information integrity and protecting against destructive cyber attacks. We want to work with media and civil society. We want to support independent media to develop new financing models to continue providing accurate information to citizens in the future.”
“We have just helped establish Kosovo’s first cybersecurity agency. Recently, we signed two bilateral memorandums of understanding with the government to increase cooperation between governments in combating information manipulation from outside sources,” he said.
