Frank Pasquale (Cornell University – Law School; Cornell Tech) has posted AI and Electoral Manipulation: From Misinformation to Demoralization (in Human Vulnerability in Interaction with AI in European Private Law (A. Diurni, ed.) (Springer, forthcoming, 2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool, but it is easily exploited by extremists and frauds to deceive and demoralize the vulnerable. Two common types of AI-predictive and generative-are putting democracy at risk. Predictive analytics can divide publics into ever more isolated silos, eroding the type of common knowledge necessary for democratic deliberation. Generative AI is making it ever easier to fake images and events. Even when such fabrications are debunked, the air of unreality created by such dissimulation has allowed some politicians to deny real evidence of wrongdoing by averring that the evidence documenting it was AI-generated. This dangerous confluence of trends means reformers have to work on more than combating misinformation. They also need to resist demoralization, which occurs when citizens start tuning out politics altogether and become too cynical or distracted to engage. AI may also play a small part in addressing the problems of misinformation and demoralization-but real solutions entail a far broader conversation about the future of democracy.