Democracy, epistemic agency, and AI: political epistemology in times of artificial intelligence

Abstract

Democratic theories assume that citizens have some form of political knowledge in order to vote for representatives or to directly engage in democratic deliberation and participation. However, apart from widespread attention to the phenomenon of fake news and misinformation, less attention has been paid to how they are supposed to acquire that knowledge in contexts shaped by artificial intelligence and related digital technologies. While this topic can also be approached from an empirical angle, this paper contributes to supporting concerns about AI and democracy by looking at the issue through the lens of political epistemology, in particular using the concept of epistemic agency. It argues that artificial intelligence (AI) endangers democracy since it risks to diminish the epistemic agency of citizens and thereby undermine the relevant kind of political agency in democracy. It shows that next to fake news and manipulation by means of AI analysis of big data, epistemic bubbles and the defaulting of statistical knowledge endanger the epistemic agency of citizens when they form and wish to revise their political beliefs. AI risks to undermine trust in one’s own epistemic capacities and hinder the exercise of those capacities. If we want to protect the knowledge basis of our democracies, we must address these problems in education and technology policy.

Power and politics in framing bias in Artificial Intelligence policy

“…The three concepts of AI, bias and intersectionality introduced here are closely related to a number of other concepts such as fairness, justice, equality (Coeckelbergh, 2022; Wong, 2020) and diversity (Søraa, 2023), as we reveal in the following discussion of frames in AI policy documents.…”

Potential cognitive risks of generative transformer-based AI chatbots on higher order executive functions.

“…1). These novel abilities endowed to humans may evolve into new forms of behavior, giving rise to a process of "cultural exaptation" (Schlaudt, 2022), which may lead to unforeseen implications for human cognition and brain function (Coeckelbergh, 2022;Eloundou et al, 2023).…”

Politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence

“…The emerging topic of the politics of AI has been studied from a range of disciplinary perspectives that goes well beyond political science and policy research and includes contributions from disciplines and fields, such as philosophy, media studies and Science and Technology Studies (Coeckelbergh, 2022; Crawford, 2021; Stilgoe & Mladenović, 2022). In his overview of the impacts of AI on freedom, equality, democracy and power, Mark Coeckelbergh highlights that ‘AI is political through and through’ (Coeckelbergh, 2022, p. 5). At the same time, these recent studies indicate the dearth of work not only on the politics of AI but also on the politics of technology more broadly.…”

“…Recently, we are seeing growing interest in the topics of AI politics, governance and policy (af Malmborg & Trondal, 2023; Djeffal et al, 2022; Justo‐Hanani, 2022; Radu, 2021; Taeihagh, 2021; Ulnicane et al, 2021), which initially were largely neglected. The emerging topic of the politics of AI has been studied from a range of disciplinary perspectives that goes well beyond political science and policy research and includes contributions from disciplines and fields, such as philosophy, media studies and Science and Technology Studies (Coeckelbergh, 2022; Crawford, 2021; Stilgoe & Mladenović, 2022). In his overview of the impacts of AI on freedom, equality, democracy and power, Mark Coeckelbergh highlights that ‘AI is political through and through’ (Coeckelbergh, 2022, p. 5).…”