AI and Democracy

Advances in AI have a relevant impact on democratic societies. In the worst scenario, generative tools enable information manipulation and electoral fraud. Furthermore, they could serve authoritarian regimes through mass surveillance. AI-generated misinformation increases voter confusion, distorts perceptions, and erodes trust in democratic processes, leaving systems vulnerable to external interference and internal division. One of the most alarming risks is that AI might autonomously shape public knowledge, creating recursive, self-referential information detached from human understanding. “AI and Democracy” will address these issues by focusing on problems, technical solutions and societal efforts to avoid “weaponized” AI. In particular, it will explore the role of policymakers in ensuring oversight and preventing destabilization.

The Open Dialogue stems from the collaboration between POLI.design, Politecnico di Milano, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ORBIS, the International Forum on Digital and Democracy (IFDAD), and EuropIA/World Artificial Intelligence Cannes Festival (WAICF). Gianluca Misuraca (AI4Gov Founding Executive Director / Head of the AI4Gov International Scientific Committee and Advisory Board) will moderate five outstanding panellists: Marco Landi (President of EuropIA Institute, Founder of WAICF), Stefano Quintarelli (President of Copernicani, Serial Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist, Former Member of the Italian Parliament and of the EU High Level Expert Group on AI Ethics), Francesca Rizzo (Scientific Director of AI4Gov, Coordinator of the ORBIS Project / Rector’s Delegate on EU Research and Professor at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano), Francesca Rossi (IBM Fellow and Artificial Intelligence Ethics Global Leader, Former Member of the EU High Level Expert Group on AI Ethics, Member of the OECD AI Expert Group), Erika Staël von Holstein (Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Re-Imagine Europa (RIE) and Member of the Spanish government’s International Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council).

The AI4Gov Dialogue will serve as an input to the forthcoming High Level Roundtable on “The metamorphosis of Democracy – how AI is disrupting digital governance and redefining our polity“, organized by IFDAD and EuropIA, taking place at the World Artificial Intelligence Cannes Festival (WAICF) on February 14th 2025. “AI and Democracy” is also one of the training activities of the Specializing Master in Artificial Intelligence for Public Services, stemming from the collaboration between the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Politecnico di Milano, and managed by POLI.design. It is milestone on the road to the study program’s fifth edition and starting in September 2025.