Polls show Americans are concerned about artificial intelligence’s impact on the election, but the public likely doesn’t understand the full extent of its influence on what they experience every day, says a scientist who studies the technology.
There were obvious examples of AI-generated misinformation, e.g incorrect audio recording of President Joe BidenA Fake video about election irregularitiesor memes is intended to generate emotions or spread propaganda. AI is also used regularly Generate legitimate campaign messagessuch as phone calls and text messages.
But behind these public examples lie the “unseen” tasks that AI takes on in election campaigns, said Cody Buntain, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland College of Information, particularly in determining the nature of your social media feeds.
“The systems that determine what content is presented to you, that’s AI at work,” Buntain said. “From the For You page of TikTok, the X feed or the profile page to the Facebook feed. All of this is AI-driven.”
Buntain is currently teaching a course on the way AI is reshaping politics and said one of the biggest impacts of AI is things we don’t generally see, like your “information diet.”
In a Pew Research Center survey of nearly 10,000 Americans across the political spectrum, published in SeptemberDemocrats and Republicans shared almost equal unease about the role of artificial intelligence in the presidential election. The poll found that 41% of Republicans and 39% of Democrats believe AI is being used in campaigns “mostly for bad.” Likewise, 56% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats are “very concerned” about AI’s influence on the election.
A separate Pew studyalso released in September, found that many Americans cite social media as their primary source of news.
Although general views about AI’s involvement in the election are negative, most Americans likely don’t understand the full extent of how the technologies are being used by campaigns and outside forces, Buntain said. You probably don’t understand how to design your social media to reinforce your existing views and biases.
The algorithms are designed to promote furious and emotional content in feeds, which can potentially contribute to information silos and echo chambers.
Echo chambers aren’t inherently a bad thing – they can provide a sense of safety and community, Buntain said. And even though there is algorithmic ranking on social media, people tend to sort themselves based on the feeds they identify with. Recently, more and more conservatives have been flocking to X after Elon Musk bought the platform, and more liberals are spending their time on TikTok, for example.
“In general, echo chambers in your offline world are actually much more echoey than echo chambers online,” he said.
But campaign advertising is another system that has been using “unseen” AI for well over a decade, Buntain said. While it may seem like AI has only been playing an crucial role for a few years – particularly since the release of ChatGPT in 2022 – this type of information discovery, categorization and targeted advertising has long been a tool of political campaigns.
The Obama for America 2012 campaign used data, technology and analytics to better reach American television audiences. This type of information discovery, categorization, and targeted advertising is the basis of many AI systems today, and the Obama campaign’s strategies were further defined and deployed for the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Today’s AI algorithms can extract information about you that goes far beyond general demographics like age and gender to also include unique interests and affiliations. This information is then used by campaigns to target advertising across almost all of your online spaces.
Aside from these “unseen” AI jobs, Buntain focused on the potential harms that Pew study participants were likely worried about. People are often worried about this Inequalities and disinformation perpetuated by AI. They are also concerned about whether they can trust the information they receive from AI systems like chatbots. Many are also likely concerned about whether they will be engaging with a real person or a bot throughout the campaign cycle.
People are rightly concerned about these AI strategies and systems playing a role in the election, but Buntain is worried about the way AI could be used in the days after, particularly if it is a very close race.
“AI tools will allow people to create content very quickly that will make the situation worse,” he said. “Five years ago you could create misinformation content, but it would take longer and be much more expensive.”
If you’re not a technologist, there’s a lot about AI that’s likely to confuse you and reinforce concerns about society you already had, Buntain said.
“Is this all just a chatbot behind the scenes trying to get us to donate or make us angry?” Buntain said. “I think the concern about whether this is an authentic actor is a concern that AI really amplifies, but it’s a concern that’s certainly been around since 2016.”
Buntain hopes that public perception of AI will change over time. He believes the concerns, particularly about his role in the election, are driven by larger societal issues such as the economy, feelings of security and the ability to trust information.
“The fact that we’re in a world that’s increasingly online, but still isolated, I think makes us a little bit ripe for … thinking negatively that these up-to-date technologies probably aren’t going to assist us like we thought “he said.
