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Is Generative AI a Danger to Democracy? It's Up to Us

AI concerning when adds to poor digital literacy - HUMADEX chief

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 15 - (by Alessio Jacona*) Is artificial intelligence a danger to democracy? Perhaps not in itself, but if combined with "a lack of digital literacy of the average user, because generative AI models can be used to create highly convincing disinformation and manipulated media, which can then spread rapidly online," says Izidor Mlakar, a scientist who leads HUMADEX (Human-centric Explorations and Research in AI, Technology, Medicine and Enhanced Data), a research group of the Laboratory for Digital Signal Processing at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Maribor, in Slovenia.
    According to Mlakar, in addition to our unpreparedness, AI is also dangerous because "social media fueled by it. ..can accelerate the spread of disinformation", for example because "AI-based bots and targeted messaging can be used to further influence public opinion and voter sentiment".
    The HUMADEX research group is a multidisciplinary team of experts in artificial intelligence, conversational intelligence and human-computer interaction. Together with ANSA, it is part of the European research project Solaris, which aims to define methods and strategies to manage the risks, threats but also opportunities that generative artificial intelligence brings to democracy, political engagement and digital citizenship.
    HUMADEX is primarily composed of AI experts, who contribute to the development and improvement of the algorithms that power the interactive and intelligent aspects of the SOLARIS platform, including natural language understanding, machine learning and data analysis, essential for creating responsive and adaptive user experiences. They are also joined by psychologists and human-computer interaction specialists, who ensure that the technology is user-friendly, engaging and accessible, but also oversee the development, execution and analysis of use cases.
    What exactly is your role in the Solaris project? "Our main activity was to design, test and validate a scale measuring trust in AI-generated content, namely the Perceived Deepfake Trustworthiness Questionnaire (PDTQ). We conducted extensive validation studies in three languages: English, Slovenian and Italian. We also worked on the detailed design of experiments in the cases of use. In use case 1 we will focus on climate change and immigration. We will assess the impact of AI-generated content on explicit and implicit attitudes towards these topics, with objective video quality, perceived trust and political orientation as benchmarks. In use case 2 we will focus on policy makers and press offices to develop methodologies and policy recommendations to prevent AI-generated content from negatively impacting social systems. We will simulate the spread of deepfakes with severe socio-political impacts (e.g., an attack on a nuclear power plant or a prime minister stating a conspiracy theory) and manage the potential offline consequences. Finally, use case 3 will focus on the potential of (generative) AI to improve digital citizenship and democratic engagement. Here the focus is on co-creating AI-generated content with citizens to raise awareness on key issues (e.g., climate change, gender equality).
    What are the real and immediate problems that AI technologies, especially generative AI, are posing to the democratic process? "Many people struggle to critically evaluate the accuracy and reliability of online information, especially when it comes from AI-generated sources. Without digital literacy, people are vulnerable to making decisions based on false narratives and manipulative content. Furthermore, the reactions and reactivity of the state and traditional, trusted media cannot compete with the quality and potential reach of negative content".
    How will the Solaris project address these issues and, more generally, what should we do to safely adopt this powerful technology and use it for good? In use case 1, SOLARIS is developing mechanisms to "explain" to citizens and "educate" them on what elements to consider when trying to understand whether a content is "real" or not. Indeed, the key competence of AI literacy includes understanding how AI works not at a technical level, but at a functional level.
    Privacy and security risks around AI also need to be addressed through digital literacy. In use case 2, we focus on how experts should react when a threat to democracy occurs. We will try to provide policy makers and the media with the means to better review mitigation protocols. This is a significant step to better understand and mitigate the democratic risks posed by advanced AI, and in this regard, public-private collaboration on industry standards and self-regulation for the responsible development and implementation of generative AI, such as the AI-Act, can help to some extent, but if the rules are not adopted by everyone, the development of the technology as well as the services based on it will tend to move to less regulated contexts. Therefore, AI literacy and education are key to empowering citizens to critically evaluate the content generated with it, as well as to helping them understand how these technologies can be used both inappropriately and for good".
    *Journalist, innovation expert and curator of the ANSA Artificial Intelligence Observatory (ANSA).
   

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