UN secretary general António Guterres reiterarted the negative effect that AI could have if fostered without responsible supervision.

“Yet, these rights and values are under attack around the world. Freedoms are being eroded. Civic space is diminishing. Polarization is intensifying. And mistrust is growing,” Mr. Guterres said.

The remarks come in the context of International Day of Democracy which is celebrated on 15th September 2024. António emphasized that AI can destabilize democratic and nation’s stability.

“Yet, these rights and values are under attack around the world. Freedoms are being eroded. Civic space is diminishing. Polarization is intensifying. And mistrust is growing,” he said.

The UN secretary general highlighted that AI can be immensely beneficial for education and democratic processes and can put spotlight on decision-making people if things go wrong.

Now that we are witnessing Gen AI and its metoric rise, it is not difficult to understand how AI can be used by bad actors in order to manipulate the election.

AI Can Change Voter’s Attitude : 2019 Report

In a 2019 report published in Yale Journal of Law & Technology, authors Karl Manheim* and Lyric Kaplan** explained that AI could be a significant threat to decisional and informational privacy. In fact, the report went on to say that AI could prove an obstacle in the core pillars of democracy like transparency, accountability and fairness.

The 2019 report also highlighted that “micro-targeted” propaganda can also be used in order to manipulate the voter’s attitude and henceforth their preference’s can be changed by the political parties by portraying the opposition in bad light based on fictional accusations.

AI Can Also Boost Education & Democratic Processes : UN Chief

While mentioning the adverse effects of AI on election campaigning, UN chief also highlighted the positives and its impact on education.

“AI can boost education on democratic processes, and shape more inclusive civic spaces where people have a say in decisions and can hold decision-makers to account,” said António Guterres

There have been reports that AI, especially generative AI was heavily used in India’s election campaign was heavily used in India’s 2024 election in the form of deepfakes. What percentage of that actually changed voter’s preference is not reported yet. But its true that AI helped to spread useful information in different languages. Nearly 50 million calls were made through AI cloning of popular politicians in order to appeal to the voters. The method proved cost-effective to the political parties.