The Use of AI: Good or Bad?
Technology is constantly advancing, as new gadgets and widgets are consistently being introduced and quickly implemented into society. These advancements more than likely have an incredibly pivotal role in media, weaving itself into powerful structures like our government and politics. One of the most jarring and influential of those advancements is the use of artificial intelligence on our elections, or AI. It has a variety of different influences, and some of those influences are listed below:
1. Polling:
1. Polling:
According to Eisen et al. (2023), AI could potentially "identify concerning anomalies in voter lists and voting machines," catching instances of unjust voter fraud; it can also "scan paper ballots more quickly," assisting poll workers in counting ballots and turning over election results. However, these advantages can also expose individual's private information to potential phishing attacks, in which voter information could be leaked.
2. Exposure to information:
AI can be an incredibly powerful influence in exposing individuals to information, and there are currently efforts to try to allow AI to "democratize, improve, and level the campaign playing field abound," such as through lowering voting barriers (Eisen et al., 2023). Politicians are also already incorporating AI technology to reach voters, utilizing it in their advertising techniques. However, since AI is currently an inexpensive way for many journalists and political actors to reach audiences, it can contribute to a negative influx of information that can overwhelm potential voters.
3. Misinformation:
Deepfakes, fabricated visuals, and ChatGPT are just three examples of platforms that can contribute to fabrication and misinformation among the many not disussed. Both politicians and regular citizens can contribute to this downside. People can fabricate letters to elected officials that gives the appearance of a public consensus but is used for them to change agenda more quickly (Eisen et al., 2023). This can cause an influx of information and can be misrepresenting to their cause, including people that may not follow the cause or not including the voices of people who do. When politicians use AI for misinformation, it can lead to voter confusion and can lead to potential voters feeling a sense of distrust in electoral systems.
Overall, AI is not exempt from intertwining with mass media and its pivotal role in politics. A quote from Dunaway and Graber (2022) feeds into this discussion: "Misinformation can come from any source, but mass media
almost certainly play a role in determining whether and how much misinformation is fed to the mass public" (p. 624).
Sources:
Dunaway, J. L., & Graber, D. A. (2022). Mass media and American politics (11th ed.). CQ Press.
Eisen, N., Lee, N. T., Galliher, C., & Katz, J. (2023). AI can stengthen U.S. democracy–and weaken it. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-can-strengthen-u-s-democracy-and-weaken-it/
I have to admit, AI scares me. I think, like with other forms of advancements, we do not know the effects of AI yet and laws are not up tp date enough to deal with this. You note both positive and negative effects of AI on elections. Personally the negatives outweigh most of the positives for me. But I would love to learn more about AI and the plans for the future to compat concerns and do more good using it.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, thank you for this great post! AI is terrifying to me. There is so much about it that is still unknown and as it grows, so do risks of something going wrong. While I had thought about your second and third points before, I loved that you mentioned the effect it could have on polling. I had no idea that was a possibility. It would be great to stop voter fraud with this type of technology, but then again it is something that I believe we should be weary of.
ReplyDeleteThere has been an abundance of pros that comes with Artificial Intelligence, but I worry that the rapid modernization, and increased usage of it will be the downfall of us as a society. I'm speaking more on a stance of generating false images and videos and how easy it is for that software to get into someone's hands. For example, on the app X (formerly referred to as Twitter) mass amounts of explicit, AI generated pictures of celebrities have circulated countless times due to individuals' sick mindsets and fantasies. I feel it's not long until everyone has the power to create extremely realistic looking media, and at that point, what will be distinguishable factors from the real and the fake?
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