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Setting Democratic Ground Rules for AI
by Beth Kerley, Senior Program Officer, International Forum for Democratic Studies
This Big Story was adapted from Beth Kerley’s recently published report for the International Forum for Democratic Studies, Setting Democratic Ground Rules for AI: Civil Society Strategies
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the playing field for democracy. Since social media’s emergence as a tool of protest, commentators have regularly stressed how our evolving technological landscape is transforming our political world. The digital tools on which we rely help to determine how people express themselves, find like-minded communities, and initiate collective action. As the International Forum has tracked in our “Making Tech Transparent” series examining AI surveillance, smart cities, and the digitalization of governance, these technologies also affect how governments monitor people, administer services, and—in some cases—dole out repression.
We are poised for another seismic shift in the balance of power between people and governments. With recent leaps in the development of large language models (LLMs), the global proliferation of AI surveillance tools, and growing enthusiasm for the automation of governance processes, technological advances are already challenging democratic systems. Recognizing that digital advances themselves do not necessarily work to democracy’s benefit, prodemocratic stakeholders must work to erect guardrails around AI development and deployment; ensure consultation with communities whose democratic rights may be impacted by AI systems; and chart development trajectories that infuse AI technologies with democratic values. The consolidation in dictatorships of authoritarian models for the integration of AI—which reject privacy, popular input, and rights-based frameworks in favor of top-down-control—heightens the urgency of this task.
The following analysis, drawn from contributions at the Forum’s May 2023 workshop “Closing Knowledge Gaps, Fostering Participatory AI Governance: The Role of Civil Society” in Buenos Aires, Argentina, presents some initial reflections from expert stakeholders—chiefly within the digital rights and open government communities—about the present state of the AI governance landscape and potential avenues for civil society intervention.
Several key points emerged from our discussion including. First, stakeholders across government, media, civil society, and the private sector need to see the human agency, relationships, and structures behind AI models—whether the social inequalities that produce biases in data and design, or the political relationships that underpin surveillance deals. Recognizing the human factors and choices that determine how AI systems affect us, rather than seeing these impacts as inevitable, is critical to maintaining democratic accountability for the policy makers, developers, and others who exercise power over and through AI technologies.
Second, these contributions underscore the urgency of equipping democratic societies and institutions to keep up with a constantly evolving set of AI harms and risks. The absence of established norms, learning processes, and institutions addressing AI harms and risks creates challenges for both governments seeking to regulate AI and civil society organizations considering how to use the technology responsibly. Even as processes such as algorithmic impact assessments (AIAs) become more institutionalized, the underlying technical landscape is changing.
Finally, participants stressed the importance of developing new strategies, processes, and collaborations to give real force to principles such as AI transparency, accountability, and privacy by design. Participants faced serious challenges both in engaging with the private-sector actors responsible for much of the decision-making around AI, and in translating state transparency and accountability mechanisms into meaningful rights protections. Deeper involvement by affected stakeholders, especially marginalized communities, at earlier stages of regulatory and design processes was a recurring demand.
As AI use grows more pervasive, our expectations of privacy, access to public goods, and opportunities to challenge injustice from the courtroom to the workplace are likely to increasingly depend on the rules and norms we establish for AI systems. If we are to ensure that these choices reflect the full range of social, civic, and human rights concerns at stake, civil society will have an important role to play in determining how democratic societies use and live with AI.
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FORUM REPORT VIRTUAL LAUNCH EVENT
Deepening the Response to Authoritarian Information Operations in Latin AmericaPlease join the International Forum for Democratic Studies on November 28th at 11:00 am ET for the launch of a new report examining civil society’s response to the intensification of authoritarian information manipulation targeting democracy in Latin America. Featured speakers include Iria Puyosa (Atlantic Council DFRLab), Marivi Marín Vázquez (ProBox), Adam Fivenson (IFDS), and Fabiola Cordova (NED). Journalist and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Distinguished Fellow Moisés Naím will moderate the discussion. Register for the Zoom Webinar here.
Towards Afro-feminist AI: A Handbook for Approaching Governance of AI in Africa
Pollicy outlines an Afro-feminist approach to AI governance and provides guidance for policymakers and industry stakeholders seeking to regulate the technology. Highlighting the ways in which AI development can reinforce asymmetries of power—for example, by relying on exploitative data collection practices in the Global South to train models—authors Bobina Zulfa and Amber Sinha emphasize the need to center democratic principles such as agency, human dignity, privacy, and non-discrimination when crafting AI regulation. Read the report here.
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Can we use AI to enrich democratic consultations?
In October 2023, Rappler launched a project to test how AI can be used to enrich democratic consultations on AI governance by developing an AI-moderated chat room that gathers and synthesizes insights from users to generate policy proposals. Rappler found that while AI-moderated focus groups had more scale potential and were useful in synthesizing inputs, participants generally preferred human-moderated consultations. The models struggled to generate constitutional, enforceable policies and necessitated human intervention for review, highlighting the inadequacies of relying exclusively on AI to conduct public consultations. Read the full report here.
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Inside the Brain of a Kazakh Smart City
Coda Story takes a closer look at the deployment in Kazakhstan of PRC surveillance technology. Over the past several years, Kazakh authorities have piloted smart city experiments using hardware from PRC-affiliated technology companies. This move toward technocratic governance has met with mixed reactions from local residents. As smart city infrastructure expands across the country, citizens will have to grapple with lingering questions around the technology’s opacity and the handling of private data, concerns highlighted in a 2022 Forum report on smart cities. Read the article here.
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Donor Principles for Human Rights in the Digital Age
The Freedom Online Coalition’s principles provide guidance for governments investing in international development projects involving digital technologies and data collection. Aiming to increase accountability in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the twelve principles include suggestions such as supporting the development and implementation of digital government and data management systems; fostering and strengthening coordination between stakeholders; and prioritizing digital inclusion. Read the principles here.
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Slovakia’s election deepfakes show AI is a danger to democracy
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