How Will AI Change Elections?
How Will AI Change Elections?
Plus a look ahead to a busy week with SCOTUS arguments and the Nigerian Election
Hello from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I really am falling in love with this place thanks to some friends who have places here. Today we are heading to Easton for the Easton Beer Fest Stews and Brews.
Some housekeeping items before we get to the main event:
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How will AI change elections?
Everyone seems to be writing about AI and their conversations with Bing’s chatbot this week. It feels like in a week; we went from people thinking things like ChatGPT were the best thing ever to being creeped out.
I do think that this is not a fad. I’m fascinated by the policy and content moderation challenges that tools like ChatGPT pose. If I were to look for a job in a company again, this would be the industry in which I’d want to try to get a job.
Because everyone is writing about it, I wondered if I should too. I didn’t want to just jump on the bandwagon and wanted a unique angle. So, of course, I thought about how this might affect elections.
A few weeks ago, I was curious how ChatGPT would answer the question, “How do I register to vote” given that every state is different. It gave an accurate response about how the rules do vary, that you’ll need to be registered to vote and to check the website of your state or local election official. It did not give you the link to find that information.
But those are the rules in the United States? I couldn’t find documentation if ChatGPT is using my location at all or if it’s only pulling information from the US.
Nigeria’s election is on Thursday so I typed in how do I vote in Nigeria. Because I specified Nigeria it did give me accurate information from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as you can see below:
When I asked how to vote in Australia, it was pulled from the Australian election commission. However, when I asked how to vote in Romania, it led me to this website for the election commission -www.votonline.ro - which is down.
I think there’s a ton of promise for ChatBots to help people get not just information on how to vote but detailed checklists on what they need to bring, where they need to go, and even to help explain how the rules differ between states and countries. I asked how voting differs in the United States versus the United Kingdom, and it did so in five easy-to-read bullet points.
Clearly, the good folks at Open AI have been careful not to get too detailed in their answers since the information the bot is trained on is from 2021 and earlier. That’s smart, but I do hope that over time we can pull in more recent information to give people more details, provide more specificity if you aren’t clear on the location you’re looking for information from, as well as cite the sources where they are pulling the answers from.
But again, the possibilities here are endless that I can think of. Campaigns could build an AI tool to pull from the candidate’s speeches and other public statements to write emails, ad copy, speeches, etc. We could create a tool to pull the stances for candidates on issues and compare them.
Lots to unpack here that I hope to do more work on. And if anyone is working on any of these tools and wants help thinking through these issues for political information, let me know. I’d love to help.
What I’m Watching
This upcoming week is a busy one for tech - though in fairness it feels like every week is a busy one.
Two things I’m watching in particular. The first is the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments for the Gonzalez v Google (Feb 21) and Twitter v Taamneh (Feb 22) cases. Daphne Keller at Stanford is the person to read for analysis of how these cases could change the internet.
Kate Klonick will be moderating a panel as well doing live analysis on the 21st.
Finally, be sure to check out the Integrity Institute’s amicus brief for the Gonzalez case. If you want a good mapping of all the amicus briefs check out this piece in Tech Policy Press.
The second thing I’m watching is the Nigeria election on Thursday. This election hasn’t gotten as much attention in the U.S. press as the Brazil election did. Only Meta and TikTok have put out announcements about the work they are doing around the election and Al Jazeera has a piece about how fake news remains a problem in the country. In particular, I’m concerned about violence around the election and how that might be stoked via content on the platforms.
Hope you all have a good weekend!
What I’m Reading
Politico EU: TikTok, Twitter, Facebook set to face EU crackdown on toxic content
Bloomberg: Ex-Tweeps Bet Social Media Is Ready for `Something New
AlJazeera: Nigeria election triggers deluge of ‘fake news’ on social media
Washington Post: Russian mercenary chief says he is also behind global information war
Foreign Affairs: Samantha Power: How Democracy Can Win
The Guardian: Dark arts of politics: how ‘Team Jorge’ and Cambridge Analytica meddled in Nigerian election
Politico: Never Say ‘Nice to Meet You’ and 27 Other Rules for Surviving in D.C.
Washington Post: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is fighting to prove app is not a security threat
Praveen Seshadri: The maze is in the mouse. What ails Google. And how it can turn…
CNBC: Elon Musk aiming to appoint his successor as Twitter CEO by the end of 2023
Ami Vora The Hard Parts of Growth: "Leadership" = taking accountability for things no one is asking you to do
Washington Post: Election deniers face a nationwide wave of pushbacks
WSJ: House Panel Issues Subpoenas to Tech CEOs for Information on Content Moderation
Think Tanks/Academia/Other
Trust in Tech Podcast: Hiring and growing trust & safety teams at small companies
Knight Foundation: American Views 2022: Part 2, Trust Media and Democracy
University of Michigan/Jigsaw: Advancing the Art of Censorship Data Analysis
Mehlman Consulting: Disequilibrium - The Issues and Leaders Driving Politics and Policy in 2023
Companies
Twitter: Updated Political Ad Policy
Google: Fog of war: how the Ukraine conflict transformed the cyber threat landscape
Jobs Board
OpenAI: US Policy & Partnerships Lead
Google: Head of AI and Emerging Tech Policy, Government Affairs and Public Policy
Reddit: EU/UK Policy Lead
Atlantic Council: DFR Lab Digital Sherlocks Applications Open - Deadline February 15
Mozilla Foundation: Director of Campaigns
Ford Foundation: Program Associate
Epic Games: Policy Lead, Trust and Safety
Calendar
🚨NEW 🚨
February 17-19, 2023 - Munich Security Conference
March 23, 2023 - Deadline for companies to have to comply with Jordan subpoena
Topics to keep an eye on:
YouTube Decision on Trump Reinstatement
Facebook 2020 election research
TV shows about Facebook - Doomsday Machine and second season of Super Pumped
February 17-19, 2023 - Munich Security Conference
February 21, 2023 - SCOTUS hears Gonzalez v Google
February 21, 2023 - Berkman Klein Center, Gonzalez v. Google Live Analysis
February 22, 2023 - SCOTUS hears Twitter v. Taamneh
February 23, 2023 - Nigeria Election
February 23 - 24: Designing Technology for Social Cohesion
February 2023 - Djibouti Election
February 2023 - Monaco Election
March 1, 2023 - All Tech is Human: Tech & Democracy: A Better Tech Future Summit
March 2, 2023 - 2023 V-Dem Democracy Report Launch
March 5, 2023 - Estonia Election
March 6, 2023 - Meta response to cross-check due
March 10 - 19: SXSW (Here’s the panel I’ll be on!)
March 23, 2023: TikTok CEO Congressional Hearing
March 23, 2023 - Dead line for companies to have to comply with Jordan subpoena
March 20 - 24, 2023: Mozilla Fest
March 29 - 30, 2023: Summit for Democracy
March 2023 - Antigua and Barbuda Election
March 2023 - Federated States of Micronesia Election
March 2023 - Guinea Bissau Election
March 2023 - Sierra Leone Election
April 30, 2023 - Benin Election
April 30, 2023 - Paraguay Election
April 2023 - Andorra Election
April 2023 - Finland Election
April 2023 - Montenegro Election
May 7, 2023 - Thailand Election
May 15-16: Copenhagen Democracy Summit
June 5-9: RightsCon
June 24 - June 30: Aspen Ideas Festival
June 25, 2023 - Guatemala Election
June 25, 2023 -Turkey Election
TBD June: DFR Lab 360/OS
July 11-13, 2023 - TrustCon
July 2023 - Cambodia Election
July 2023 - Timor-Leste Election
July 2023 - Zimbabwe Election
August 6, 2023 - Greece Election
August 2023 - Eswatini Election
September 27-29, 2023: Athens Democracy Forum
TBD September: Atlantic Festival
TBD September: Unfinished Live
September 2023 - Mauritania Election
September 28-29, 2023 - Trust & Safety Research Conference
October 8 - 12: Internet Governance Forum - Japan
October 10, 2023 - Liberia Election
October 12, 2023 - Pakistan Election
October 14, 2023 - New Zealand Election
October 22, 2023 - Switzerland Election
October 2023 - Argentina Election
October 2023 - Luxembourg Election
October 2023 - Oman Election
November 12, 2023 - Poland Election
November 20, 2023 - Marshall Islands Election
November 29, 2023 - Ukraine Election
November 2023 - Bhutan Election
November 2023 - Gabon Election
November 2023 - Rwanda Election
December 10, 2023 - Spain Election
December 2023 - Bangladesh Election
December 2023 - Democratic Republic of the Congo Election
December 2023 - Togo Election
TBD - Belarus Election
TBD - Cuba Election
TBD - Equatorial Guinea Election
TBD - Guinea Election
TBD - Madagascar Election
TBD - Maldives Election
TBD - Myanmar Election
TBD - Singapore Election
TBD - South Sudan Election - (Unlikely to happen)
TBD - Turkmenistan Election
TBD - Tuvalu
TBD - Haiti
July 15-18, 2024 - Republican National Convention