READINGS WE RECOMMEND
Artificial Intelligence and Democracy: How are AI based interventions recasting democracy in India? - 22 May 2020, Urvashi Aneja, Angelina Chamuah and, Abishek Reddy K
Increasingly, applications of big data and machine learning are being used to manipulate public opinion, spread and amplify hate speech, and increase the surveillance capacities of states across the world. What is the impact of AI on democracy in India? This paper, by the Indian think-tank Tandem Research aims to map and identify some of the key issues of concern around AI and democracy.
Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Norms: Meeting the Authoritarian Challenges - August 2020, Nicholas D. Write
This paper by Dr. Nicholas D. Wright examines emerging issues in four crucial arenas relating to the integrity and vibrancy of democratic systems. He examines threats to the freedom of speech, intellectual inquiry, contestation over the principles that govern technology and the leverage of state-driven capital for political and often corrosive purposes. The series evaluates the threats to these systems in the light of AI and AI driven technologies.
‘What Orwell Feared’: Artificial Intelligence vs Democratic Norms - 29 July 2020, Democracy Digest
In this scenario, most AI researchers around the world come to recognize the technology’s risks to humanity, and develop strong norms around its use. All except for one country, which makes the right noises about AI ethics, but only as a cover. Meanwhile, this country builds turnkey national surveillance systems, and sells them to places where democracy is fragile or nonexistent. The world’s autocrats are usually felled by coups or mass protests, both of which require a baseline of political organization. But large-scale political organization could prove impossible in societies watched by pervasive automated surveillance.
Artificial intelligence shows potential to gauge voter sentiment - 7 November 2020, Livemint
November was a historic month for the US democratic system. In the months leading up to the US elections experts used AI to gauge voter sentiment. This article highlights the attempts of few tech companies that developed AI models to make election predictions.
Artificial Intelligence for the Indo-Pacific: A Blueprint for 2030 - 27 November 2020, Abhijnan Rej
In this article the author identifies three technologies around AI for regional collaboration that can help further the free, open, resilient, and inclusive nature of the Indo-Pacific in the medium term, up until 2030. He includes spatial computing technology, resilient smart features, and counter-adversarial technologies.
Freedom of the Media and Artificial Intelligence - 9 November 2020, Julia Haas
This paper addresses how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) affects freedom of expression and media freedom. While AI can improve communication and information access in numerous ways, including through legacy media, the author focuses on the main concerns when AI is not deployed in a human rights-friendly manner.
Implications of AI-Driven Tools in the Media for Freedom of Expression - 28-29 May 2020, Prof. Dr. Natali Helberger, Sarah Eskens, Max van Drunen, Dr. Mariella Bastian and Dr. Judith Moeller
Taking into account the particular role of the media in a democracy as a source of information, platform for deliberation, and critical watchdog, it becomes evident that freedom of expression is a central human right to consider in the deployment of AI-driven tools in the media, next to the right to privacy and the prohibition of discrimination. Based on an analysis of the use of AI-driven tools in the light of Article 10 ECHR, this report highlights a number of points for attention and the need for further initiatives.
Report: Global Internet Freedom Declines in Shadow of Pandemic - October 2020, Adrian Shahbaz and Allie Funk
This report by Freedom House shows how the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating a dramatic decline in global internet freedom. For the 10th consecutive year, users have experienced an overall deterioration in their rights, and the phenomenon is contributing to a broader crisis for democracy worldwide. In the COVID-19 era, connectivity is not a convenience, but a necessity. Virtually all human activities—commerce, education, health care, politics, socializing—seem to have moved online. But the digital world presents distinct challenges for human rights and democratic governance. State and nonstate actors in many countries are now exploiting opportunities created by the pandemic to shape online narratives, censor critical speech, and build new technological systems of social control.
