On October 22, 2024, the Humanitarian Response & Resilience Series held its first panel discussion on “Understanding the Intersection Between AI Elections and National Resiliency,” offering insight into the ways AI has influenced elections around the world, its potential impact on national resiliency, and steps the public, private, and social sector can take to combat it. Watch the event recording below or on our YouTube channel here.
The encroaching and pervasive nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our daily lives is garnering widespread attention. On October 22, SID-US launched the Humanitarian Response & Resilience Series to raise awareness and better understand the impact of AI on political campaigns, elections, and ultimately a country’s stability and resilience.
The series launched with a webinar discussion on “Understanding the Intersection Between AI Elections and National Resiliency” in which two esteemed AI subject matter experts, Dr. Sorin Adam Matei, a Professor of Communication at Purdue University, and Lucina Di Meco, a women’s rights advocate and author whose work has been recognized by Apolitical as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy, addressed the impact of AI on democracy. The panel, moderated by Chizi Igwe, SID-US Board Vice Chair for Program Affairs and Senior Program Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation, was designed to offer insight regarding next steps for public and private sectors and civil society at large.
“How should we define AI vis-à-vis the electoral process?”
Chizi Igwe, SID-US Board Vice Chair for Program Affairs and Senior Program Officer at the Milennium Challenge Corporation
Igwe noted that everyone has a different perception or working definition of AI and kicked off the discussion by asking the panelists what AI meant to them. Dr. Matei, who studies the relationship between information technology, group behavior, and social structures, responded by making a distinction between strong and weak AI. According to Dr. Matei, “strong AI involves solutions or enactment of plans that humans do in a conscious and planned manner, whereas weak AI entails general text predictions that are based on human thoughts.” Dr. Matei believes that weak AI like Chat GPT can create summaries that are confined by only what is input by a human. On the other hand, strong AI is not yet at that stage where human input is no longer needed.
Lucina Di Meco, co-founder of #ShePersisted, a global initiative dedicated to tackling gendered disinformation against women in politics, focused on how generative AI (weak AI) impacts women and youth throughout electoral processes. Di Meco highlighted that “bias is inherent in existing AI and is a reflection of society.” Di Meco shared that the malicious use of AI is meant to harm the credibility of female political candidates, plays into stereotypes, and is politically motivated.
According to Di Meco, an unregulated social media environment fails to protect democratic values. Di Meco clarified that “AI itself is not benign, rather it’s how AI is used on social media – far-reaching impact – that raises cause for concern.” Di Meco expressed her disillusionment with the ways ill-intended apps use AI to influence politics. For example, Di Meco forewarned the various ways that AI could be used and further how social media can be an agent using networks to combat thoughts across the globe.
“AI itself is not benign.”
Lucina Di Meco, Co-Founder of #ShePersisted
Dr. Matei noted that weak AI models such as Grammarly are designed to impersonate humans and create personas or bots to generate messages that are well-attuned to public opinion. As a result, Dr. Matei proposes that one “becomes less vocal or joins the bandwagon to influence the political process.” Dr. Matei noted that “AI proponents might consider exploring the best possible way to identify malevolent actors who impact the political process and ultimately care about their monetized content.”
The theme of regulating social media was addressed by both panelists. Dr. Matei noted that the Federal Trade Commision protects citizens' rights under the First Amendment. For Dr. Matei, there is too much regulation and that weaker governments have regulation to create laws and that “democracy is sliding back.” Di Meco counter-argued that “if you are a woman, a woman of color, or a religious minority, you do not have any freedom of expression; there is enormous backlash.” Di Meco underscored the need to support women by creating better social media environments.
Key Takeaways
- Consider “working with the government and through the government – as a key counteragent to create frameworks for how social media players utilize their platforms and the way content creators let AI to inform and influence elections;” think about working in partnership with the government.
- Explore multi-dimensional strategies that consider the fact that marginalized communities cannot access or are often denied their right to freedom of expression on social media platforms.
- Continue the ongoing debates about the strengths of AI for innovation and as a useful and productive tool.