In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, many experts braced for what they called the “first AI election.” The warnings were everywhere: generative AI could flood voters with deepfakes, fabricate evidence of fraud, and make it impossible to tell what was real from what was manufactured. U.S. intelligence officials declassified reports about foreign influence operations already experimenting with these tools, and major AI companies made grand pledges to keep deceptive election content off their platforms. Yet when the voting actually happened, the feared AI-driven deluge never quite arrived. Foreign nations faced real barriers—technical, organizational, and practical—that limited their ability…

On a Saturday in Dhaka, the corridors of Notre Dame College were filled with something more than the usual hum of students; they were alive with the energy of a national media carnival drawing to a close. The occasion was the closing ceremony of the Second National Media Carnival 2026, and the chief guest was Yasser Khan Choudhury, the State Minister for Information and Broadcasting. He did not use his time to deliver a standard speech of congratulations or political pleasantries. Instead, he offered a sobering message. In a world increasingly shaped by social media, he said, the spread of…