Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms
A project studying how advanced AI systems may harm, or help strengthen, democratic freedoms
Advanced AI is already transforming society, and is likely to bring even more profound changes to our economic, political, cultural, and associative lives in the future. With these changes come obvious threats. Among the most profound is its potential to undermine democratic freedoms—including at least the civil and political liberties that democracies protect, and the basic right to stable and functioning democratic institutions.
In partnership with the Knight Institute’s Senior AI Advisor Seth Lazar, the Institute will examine the risks that advanced artificial intelligence systems pose to democratic freedoms, to discuss sociotechnical as well as technical interventions to mitigate these risks, and to identify ways in which these systems may be employed to support democracy.
The project will culminate in a major symposium to be held April 10-11, 2025, at Columbia University and online.
Essays and Scholarship
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The AI Power Disparity Index: Toward a Compound Measure of AI Actors’ Power to Shape the AI Ecosystem
A proposal for an AI Power Disparity Index, a composite indicator designed to measure and signal the changing distribution of power in the AI ecosystem
By Rachel M. Kim , Blaine Kuehnert , Seth Lazar , Ranjit Singh & Hoda Heidari -
AI Agents and Democratic Resilience
How AI agents might affect the realization of democratic values
By Seth Lazar & Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar -
AI and Democratic Publics
Bringing politics back into debates about AI and democracy
By Henry Farrell & Hahrie Han -
Can AI Mediation Improve Democratic Deliberation?
Exploring how large language models can enhance democratic participation, improve political equality, and foster meaningful deliberation
By MH Tessler , Georgina Evans , Michiel A. Bakker , Iason Gabriel , Sophie Bridgers , Rishub Jain , Raphael Koster , Verena Rieser , Anca Dragan , Matthew Botvinick & Christopher Summerfield -
Levels of Autonomy for AI Agents
A framework outlining levels of AI agent autonomy can be used to support the responsible deployment of AI agents
By Kevin Feng , David McDonald & Amy Zhang -
Don’t Panic (Yet): Assessing the Evidence and Discourse Around Generative AI and Elections
Why claims about the impact of generative AI on elections have been overblown
By Felix M. Simon & Sacha Altay -
Towards Interactive Evaluations for Interaction Harms in Human-AI Systems
Proposing a new AI evaluation paradigm that addresses the harms that develop from repeated human-AI interactions
By Lujain Ibrahim , Saffron Huang , Umang Bhatt , Lama Ahmad & Markus Anderljung -
Representative Ranking for Deliberation in the Public Sphere
Incorporating a justified representation constraint into comment ranking to increase inclusion of diverse viewpoints in online comment sections
By Manon Revel , Smitha Milli , Tyler Lu , Jamelle Watson-Daniels & Maximilian Nickel -
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Experimental Publics: Democracy and the Role of Publics in GenAI Evaluation
Public involvement both challenges and reshapes the governance of generative AI systems.
By Jacob Metcalf , Ranjit Singh & Borhane Blili-Hamelin -
What Will Remain for People to Do?
The future of labor in a world with increasingly productive AI
By Daniel Susskind
Institute Update
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Call for Abstracts: Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms
Symposium to be held at Columbia University in November 2024 and April 2025
