Misunderstanding AI’s Democracy Problem
Abstract
In recent surveys, a majority of Americans express the opinion that disinformation generated through artificial intelligence will determine the outcome of the 2024 election. Indeed, there are already thousands of examples of “deep fakes” related to the US Presidential Election, as there were for other national elections earlier this year. However, the panic over AI has proven to be more of a democracy problem than the AI-created imagery itself. This paper discusses various dimensions of AI’s “democracy problem” and the differences between this new generation of tech-related concerns and the lingering worries about social media’s impact on elections.