While generative AI tools could offer significant benefits in fields such as medicine, manufacturing, and education, how they are applied to electoral politics must be carefully regulated. Otherwise, they will undermine, rather than strengthen, rule by the people.
SILICON VALLEY – Predicting how generative artificial intelligence might affect democracy is a formidable challenge, given that its potential applications are still largely unknown – and seem virtually limitless. While narrow AI tools, designed for specific tasks like reconciling voter records, are already in use in various countries, the impact of generative AI is harder to foresee. This technology is not merely another app, like a social-media platform, but rather a foundational technology more akin to the emergence of the internet itself. It will influence democracy both directly, transforming the mechanics of elections and governance, and indirectly, as it threatens to shift the very foundations of information ecosystems, public trust, and opinion.
SILICON VALLEY – Predicting how generative artificial intelligence might affect democracy is a formidable challenge, given that its potential applications are still largely unknown – and seem virtually limitless. While narrow AI tools, designed for specific tasks like reconciling voter records, are already in use in various countries, the impact of generative AI is harder to foresee. This technology is not merely another app, like a social-media platform, but rather a foundational technology more akin to the emergence of the internet itself. It will influence democracy both directly, transforming the mechanics of elections and governance, and indirectly, as it threatens to shift the very foundations of information ecosystems, public trust, and opinion.