The UK is developing a tool for democracies to combat the deceptive use of artificial intelligence by foreign states like Russia and China as the world embarks on a major election year.

The plan to collectively fight digital threats was announced by Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, during a summit of global democracies on Monday in South Korea, and comes in a year when around half the world will go to the polls amid fears of malicious attempts to influence some results.

Mr Dowden said he was confident the British election would not be manipulated by foreign states because “we have such entrenched and strong democratic institutions”, citing the electoral commission, “the integrity of our political parties” and cooperation with the private sector on cyber threats.

He told The Telegraph that Britain must be prepared for where risks could arise, and to “tool up for it”, alongside other democracies.

“It is pretty well signposted that there are concerns around the use of AI in elections, particularly in the deepfake sphere. So, it is right that we try and galvanise support around cross-governmental and cross-tech work rather than waiting for an incident to happen.”

In 2024, about 4 billion people in 76 nations – the most of any year on record – will face elections, from sham polls in Russia and North Korea that cement the power of autocratic leaders, to free and fair votes that will be a stress test for even the most robust democracies.

From Taiwan to India, Mexico and South Africa, presidential and parliamentary contests will have a profound impact on human rights, the cost of living and the prospects for either calming tensions or fanning the flames in an increasingly volatile world.

A possible showdown between Joe Biden, the US president, and his predecessor Donald Trump is widely viewed as the biggest global wildcard that could significantly alter the trajectory of US foreign policy on Ukraine, the Middle East and China, with far-reaching implications.

Such a politically consequential year worldwide has stoked concerns about potential attempts to manipulate voters through social media.

“I think it’s a relevant consideration for all elections and I’m not just postulating on this, we’ve seen it,” said Mr Dowden.

AI-generated deepfake footage of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, was a prime example of what the world was up against, he said.

In one instance last year, a heavily manipulated video appeared to show Mr Zelensky telling soldiers to surrender the fight against Russia, before it was debunked.

The British initiative is designed to be “actor agnostic” and not state specific, to respond to evolving situations.

Mr Dowden called out the “usual four big states” of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as presenting long-standing threats of “malign interference”, naming them as “the greatest originators of those kinds of threats”.

He added: “That’s where the greatest cyber challenges emanate from but we need to be future proof and guard against where future risks may arise from as well.”

The new British concept of pulling together like-minded governments to jointly fight online attempts to undermine democracy is still in its infancy, but Mr Dowden discussed the plan with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, who is also attending the summit in Seoul this week.

He said the idea was to build on a tech accord already agreed earlier this year between 20 leading technology companies to counter harmful AI-generated content meant to deceive voters.

The UK was trying to extend that to cooperation between governments to agree on principles for international action to tackle risks and to hold states accountable for using AI to interfere in elections.

Improving public awareness of the risks of deepfakes would be one of the biggest aims, he said. “They shouldn’t take images for granted. They really need to question, ‘are they valid?’.”