ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York state attorney general's office has made mitigating the impact of misinformation generated by artificial intelligence a priority this election cycle.

On Thursday, the office released a guide to understand and identify material meant to manipulate voters, exacerbate political divisions and attempt to affect election results. Attorney General Letitia James said AI has made it easier than ever to create and spread misinformation.

"Some people are seeking to sow confusion into our electoral process, and are using AI to generate fake images, videos, and audio messages that can be misleading," she said.

The guides explain deepfakes, pointing out AI technology can easily create lifelike photos, video and audio "with a simple text prompt." It gives tips to identify whether media is authentic, including looking for things like unnatural appearances and movements, unusual lighting and audio, and content that has not been reported by established news outlets.

The guide also warns people to be careful when using chatbots and gives a list of ways people can protect themselves. Last month, the attorney general wrote a letter to the country's biggest social media companies asking them to disclose the measures they are taking to stop AI misinformation, wrote a report and hosted a symposium on the topic.