Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence effects on globalization
Introduction
For billions of citizens globally, the digital revolution has generated tremendous opportunities and expediency. However, policymakers will probably comprehend the full political effects in retrospection. It poses a great test in tackling the dangers and opportunities of information technology for democratic organizations and developments. Big Data, Information Technology, and Artificial Intelligence can be utilized by both moderate and despotic societies, bolstering both government openness and authoritarian capabilities. Information Communications Technology has provided unparalleled access to and dissemination of information. Also, it has augmented the propagation of half-truths and propaganda and amplifying certain wrong beliefs, thus furthering populism and divisions in democratic civilizations.
Globally users are enjoying supposedly free services in the knowledge economy. Still, opaque business models have brought up crucial queries concerning privacy, data usage, and ownership, as well as strategic exploitation for both monetary and political rationales. Undemocratic nations are quickly learning how to utilize surveillance equipment, big data, and artificial intelligence to their benefit to gain domination over their subjects and to take away democratic liberties. For open societies whose unity is founded on the independence and concurrence of their populaces, this exemplifies an extraordinary challenge. It is the contention of this essay that Information Technology, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are killing democracy.
Information Technology, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Threat to Democracy
Democracy, as a prized asset, requires constant protection. People living in tolerant, democratic nations usually take their constitutionally safeguarded rights and liberty for granted and make assumptions that nothing can upset these fundamental structures. Nonetheless, other citizens have suffered under despotic or dictatorial governments and are better informed about the matter. They have discovered the hard way that democracy should under no circumstances be taken quickly. Media freedom and autonomous courts are vital instruments that protect democracies from repressive leaders who may want to take over and limit people’s liberties. However, recently the latent frailty of these instruments has been exposed in numerous democratic nations worldwide, including the United States of America. It works as a caution that democratic organizations cannot operate correctly in isolation. Their efficiency is dependent on knowledgeable and steadfast citizenries and their civil leaders. In this perspective, the information technology growth of the last twenty years has progressively emerged as a two-edged sword.
Although technology on its own is politically impartial, it can be utilized by both open and despotic societies, strengthening both government openness and authoritarian capabilities. However, it cannot be implied that technological development does not provide advantages to various forms of political organizations. Technology is amongst the driving forces of human history. But how it will shape societies and political systems depends on its implementation through companies and governments, and its adaption through citizens.
The benefits of technology development for people and institutions communications and organization cannot be overstated. Currently, our civilization is enjoying access to a lot of information, which was impossible several years past. This transformation is embodied by the convenience and benefits offered by smartphones to billions of individuals. Technological advancements have enhanced public conversations through innovative systems of multidimensional communication. Social media networks, for example, Facebook and Twitter, are now standard tools utilized by citizens, political leaders, and businesses to communicate with others, offer opinions, and advance policy proposals.
Two decades ago, during the emergence of the Internet, there was enormous optimism that universal connectivity and speedy technological advancement would herald a new trend of democratization. There was an assumption that the more extensive technology is spread, the more it would increase democratic rule through people and the accountability of regimes. At the start of the last decade, when the Arab spring took place, there was still hope that this outcome would be achieved, when government suppression of media and association freedoms in tyrannical nations were sidestepped through social media.
More than ten years after the earlier jubilation and far-reaching acceptance of strategic information technologies, the challenges presented by these tools are now steadily being acknowledged by citizens, human rights groups, administrations, and the general populace. Specifically, the scandals attributed to Cambridge Analytica and the social media giants, Facebook, concerning Britain’s Brexit vote, and the 2016 presidential elections in the United States, have demonstrated that information technology can be utilized in customary democracies to sway electorates and distort the political dialogue.
The technological development of the last twenty years was so fast that policymakers did not understand its full impact until now in retrospection. Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Information Technology certainly are some of the most significant tests for lawmakers and democracy watchdogs on the subject of how to handle the hazards of information technology, big data, and artificial intelligence, for democratic societies and processes. The need for citizens to sift through and consciously evaluate the normal overflow of information has grown tremendously. Besides, the fast incorporation of social media tools into all aspects of people’s lives has generated unmatched opportunities for tailored, targeted, robotic, and usually overlooked influence. Also, despotic countries have quickly adopted the use of surveillance tools, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI) for their benefit, both for national command and for the destruction of rival democratic countries.
For countries whose unity and structure is founded on the autonomy and consent of its people, this offers an enormous and critical test. How democratic societies handle this test will be an essential element in strengthening democratic political systems. Recent political events and growing circumstantial facts pinpoint a few major areas in which information technology and Artificial Intelligence are destabilizing undermining democracy: echo chambers, fake news, data misuse, loss of privacy, mass surveillance, and targeted persuasion.
The most notable effect of information technology development of the past twenty years on political affairs is in communication, and how persons and societies disseminate information. Half-truths, misinformation, and persuasive scheming have been indispensable political tools since the emergence of civilization. However, dominant connectivity, availability of affordable computers and smartphones, and the influx of big data in the last couple of years has accelerated the organized distribution of half-truths and personalized manipulation on a massive scale. Legislators and citizens are now conscious of some of the most severe implications: organized misrepresentation of facts on a mass level; micro-targeting of electorates; creating division in public conversations in open societies; data warfare and creation of mistrust for democratic institutions; and censorship of information movement and citizens’ opinion in repressive countries.
In democratic civilizations’, a key challenge exists in the realignment of the conventional communication setting hitherto ruled by reputable media across digital and multifaceted messaging and social media networks. Theoretically, the development of alternate, multidimensional, and largely free data and news content might be viewed as supplementation of the political discourse and an instrument of empowering societies, unmasking corrupt practices, and pushing governments to be transparent. But, the absence of information examination that is typical on these mediums and their inbuilt inclination to buttress prevailing sentiments amongst users algorithmically has increased dissemination of coordinated propaganda and deception, and the emergence of digital “echo chambers” is polarizing societies and undermining the public discourse. The usage of ‘free’ digital media is incentivizing sensationalism.
Most people the world over have moved from traditional media and are consuming information online, digital news feeds, and social networks are now an integral part of the political process. A change in how news is consumed has accelerated the distribution of political sensationalism; the commercial fundamentals of social networks and online journalism are inclined to support emotions more than factual content. The increased political rivalry and upsurge in populism in constitutionalist societies, and the disintegration of political parties in the last decade, is attributable to the growth of social networks and widespread internet connectivity.
Geopolitical dynamics are changing; digital warfare is growing in popularity because of innovative and progressively affordable technologies. Tyrannical states are exploiting the Internet and freely available communication tools to scandalize and weaken democratic nations and influence foreign voters during elections. Simultaneously, they impede the flow of information to their citizenry by restricting and gagging the Internet in their countries while utilizing social media networks and online media to influence and direct the public discourse. The toolkit for manipulating consumers and the general public at home and across borders include the distribution of intentionally false or exceedingly deceptive information utilizing automated tools that run through phony social media accounts mimicking individual traits to manipulate public opinions. Speedy advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is facilitating the exploitation and generation of fake audio and video content, facilitating the further spread of half-truths and disinformation, which are more deceptive than fake news editorials.
Abuse of social networks for political reasons is now a prevalent occurrence worldwide, and the election scandals are originating from technology misuse or abuse are no longer single incidents. Most recently, China has been accused of sponsoring and disseminating misinformation during the Hong Kong protests. As a result, numerous accounts linked with the Chinese government were blocked and removed by Twitter and Facebook (BBC). The global nature of the threat posed by technology to democracy was exemplified by the circulation of misinformation, half-truths, and hate speech in Brazil and India through social media, specifically WhatsApp and Facebook. It is now apparent that efforts to influence the electorate and populace through online trolls, automated software, and targeted persuasion usually originate from communist countries.
Conclusion
Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence are affecting all facets of our lives regardless of whether one resides in a democratic or despotic country. The sheer growth, absence of precedents, sophistication, and the elusive character of the changes articulated herein pose a real threat to both governments and individuals. Although technology is nonaligned, its usage is not. Besides all the unquestionable opportunities and advantages obtainable from a universally interlinked world and the swift technological evolution, it is necessary to have a clearer picture of how significantly this is affecting political discourse, elections, and communication between the state and its citizens. Policymakers who are in charge of communications and artificial intelligence technologies are not impartial. This essay is focused on the dangers posed by information technology and artificial intelligence to democracy. The benefits of big data and technological development in artificial intelligence and automation cannot be negated. These tools are essential in steady, vibrant, and thriving democracies for the promotion of liberal principles and safeguarding of personal rights and freedom. However, these tools are now used to create disharmony, subjugate citizens, and distort the will of the people during elections. Therefore if the trend is not checked through legislation and public education, information technology, and artificial intelligence developments will kill democracy.