By Austin Lawrence
Science & Technology
As your family sits at home watching television, an ad for a presidential candidate suddenly appears on the screen. The candidate begins discussing plans to raise the retirement age and curtail freedom of speech, among other controversial proposals. You and your family stare in disbelief and can't help but question: why would the candidate you once favored take such a drastic turn, causing you to reconsider your support? The overarching question lingers: why would a candidate on television espouse views that alienate their own supporters?
The answer is a simple one. It’s a fake advertisement that just seems extremely real. In June of 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign shared a fake AI generated image showing Donald Trump embracing former Covid czar Anthony Fauci. If the timing were closer to elections, it could have strongly flipped the script on who would be voted into office and who would not. This situation brings into the reality that humanity lives in a world where this question will come up due to the creation of Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), a form of technology that “enables computers and machines to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities,” has become the hype of technological advances today. Regardless of this hype, this rapid emergence of AI poses a significant threat to the integrity of democratic processes worldwide and must be banned from being used to create advertisements or spread false information through federal regulations. As AI continues to advance, its infiltration into political arenas raises profound ethical concerns and threatens the very foundation of democracy. AI algorithms, fueled by vast amounts of data, can now target individuals for campaign optimization, craft personalized messages, and predict electoral outcomes with alarming accuracy. Recent advancements in AI, particularly in natural language processing and predictive analytics, have granted it unprecedented capabilities to influence electoral strategies and manipulate public opinion. The first campaign driven directly by AI was in Argentina, where political parties competed to create false images and videos to attack each other and support their party. Sergio Massa and his team created a video of Javier Milei explaining the “hypothetical revenues that could be realized from the sale of human organs,” and argued that parents should consider having children as a long term investment.
The increasing reliance on AI in politics will also perpetuate systemic biases and exacerbate existing inequalities within electoral processes. These algorithms, often trained on historical data, inherently carry biases that favor specific candidates or demographic groups. According to a report by Brookings, “AI equips illiberal nonstate actors and autocracies with an array of comparatively low-cost, unmanned tools by which adversaries may pry the electorate further apart,” thus allowing destabilization and polarization to occur when the intent of elections are to simply bring the country together. By reinforcing these biases, AI undermines the principle of fairness and equality in democratic elections. Moreover, the opaque nature of AI algorithms poses a threat to democratic transparency and accountability. When political actors utilize AI as a black-box tool to manipulate public opinion or suppress dissent, it erodes trust in democratic institutions and undermines the integrity of electoral systems. With less than a year until America's 2024 elections, our country still has no federal rules for “using AI generated content in political materials such as ads.” Russel Wald, a Policy director at Stanford University’s Institute for Human Centered AI, couldn't have said it more perfectly - the biggest problem AI-generated campaign materials pose is promotion of the “liars’ dividend' ' where someone claims a fact is a lie or fake and creates doubt in a political candidate.
Implementing AI in politics not only risks compromising the fairness of elections but also threatens the fundamental principles of democracy. By relinquishing control to AI-driven algorithms, we relinquish our ability to ensure fair and transparent electoral processes. The potential consequences of unchecked AI deployment in politics are dire and far-reaching.
Therefore, it is imperative that we reject the integration of AI into politics and instead prioritize the preservation of democratic values and principles. Rather than entrusting decision-making to opaque and potentially biased algorithms, we must uphold human oversight and accountability in political processes. The risks associated with implementing AI in politics far outweigh any potential benefits it may offer. To safeguard democracy and ensure fair and transparent electoral processes, we must resist the temptation to rely on AI-driven solutions and instead uphold the principles of fairness, transparency, and human agency in political decision-making.
Sources
Image: Tomasz Wozniakowski
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