Artificial Intelligence and Democracy
Finding the truth
2024 will go down as one of the biggest election years of all time. There are at least 64 countries, including the European Union, going to the polls. This represents 49% of the world’s population, the greatest show of democracy for a long time. But will it be a free and fair vote? The rise in disinformation, fake videos and the use of AI has put some serious doubts in voters minds. Couple that with the extensive use of social media and the scene is set for an enormous battle for hearts and minds.
The level of political knowledge and participation in politics among most of the population, is meagre, to say the least. It’s boring, it’s over my head, what difference can I make, I only have one vote.
A healthy democracy enables the population to hold government officials to account. At the extreme, they can vote them out of office. But voters must have accurate information that relates to these candidates. This is where generative AI can prove problematic.
New technologies such as ChatGPT can produce large swathes of information. DALL-E3 and other image creators can manipulate people’s perception of politicians and their opinions. Images can be softened to make them more appealing to voters. Videos are now available from a few word prompts. Producing fake videos is not illegal, therefore…
