Regulating new forms of political campaigning in the AI age

Abstract

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in political campaigns is a growing phenomenon, we have already witnessed in Argentina, Bangladesh, Taiwan and Slovakia to name a few recent instances. AI can help political actors to reach and engage with voters, as well as to optimize their strategies and resources. However, AI can also be used to manipulate voters’ emotions, opinions, preferences, and behaviours as well as influence public opinion, through the dissemination of false or misleading information (disinformation), the creation of fake or biased content (including deepfakes), and the exploitation of personal data. These practices raise profound ethical and social concerns such as elections’ integrity and fairness, privacy and autonomy of voters, threats on minorities and human rights and many more. These concerns call for an urgent need to regulate the use of AI in political campaigns, and to ensure that it is used in a transparent, accountable, and responsible manner. But how can we regulate the use of AI in political campaigns? Clearly, it is much easier said than done. This panel will focus on questions regarding the feasibility, effectiveness, and sustainability of regulation as well as on case studies of initiatives to regulate political use of AI. To what extent the regulation of political campaigning in different countries is adapting to the emerging use of AI by political parties and through which measures. How cooperative will political parties be with regulative initiatives which will result in limiting their online practices and is there a difference between parties’ willingness to voluntarily or regulatory-based adaption of transparent and responsible digital practices, based on their agendas.

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