Can artificial intelligence be used to undermine elections?
Can artificial intelligence be used to undermine elections?
The UK and the US are both heading towards national elections. In the next couple of years almost every major democracy will also hold the most important national elections in their systems. Previous elections in the UK and the US and a referendum in the UK saw spikes in political disinformation online, as well as online exercises in profiling and targeting for the purpose of political influencing. Similar activities have been identified around elections worldwide.
The online influencing that happens around these coming elections will not simply be repeats of what we have seen before. Since the last US and UK general elections, artificial intelligence has continued to develop fast. New applications including large language models have been developed, and some have become widely available. It is very likely that some of these new tools will be used in attempts to influence the functioning and the outcomes of those elections. Some of those uses may fall within the range of safe and legitimate political activity. Others may be harmful and even dangerous to democratic processes.
Collectively, we should improve our understanding of what could go wrong and how we should be protected from new harms, before the elections take place.
ai, democracy, elections
Hawes, Ben
12922a05-6da8-4e8f-9a38-4728319f5656
Hall, Dame Wendy
11f7f8db-854c-4481-b1ae-721a51d8790c
Ryan, Matt
f07cd3e8-f3d9-4681-9091-84c2df07cd54
September 2023
Hawes, Ben
12922a05-6da8-4e8f-9a38-4728319f5656
Hall, Dame Wendy
11f7f8db-854c-4481-b1ae-721a51d8790c
Ryan, Matt
f07cd3e8-f3d9-4681-9091-84c2df07cd54
Hawes, Ben, Hall, Dame Wendy and Ryan, Matt
(2023)
Can artificial intelligence be used to undermine elections?
Web Science Trust
13pp.
(doi:10.5258/SOTON/WSI-WP005).
Record type:
Monograph
(Working Paper)
Abstract
The UK and the US are both heading towards national elections. In the next couple of years almost every major democracy will also hold the most important national elections in their systems. Previous elections in the UK and the US and a referendum in the UK saw spikes in political disinformation online, as well as online exercises in profiling and targeting for the purpose of political influencing. Similar activities have been identified around elections worldwide.
The online influencing that happens around these coming elections will not simply be repeats of what we have seen before. Since the last US and UK general elections, artificial intelligence has continued to develop fast. New applications including large language models have been developed, and some have become widely available. It is very likely that some of these new tools will be used in attempts to influence the functioning and the outcomes of those elections. Some of those uses may fall within the range of safe and legitimate political activity. Others may be harmful and even dangerous to democratic processes.
Collectively, we should improve our understanding of what could go wrong and how we should be protected from new harms, before the elections take place.
Text
AI and Democracy 2023-02
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Published date: September 2023
Keywords:
ai, democracy, elections
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 484562
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/484562
PURE UUID: faaa3e50-ab31-41a3-ad9a-bf119098ac55
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Date deposited: 16 Nov 2023 17:41
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:14
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Author:
Ben Hawes
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