Class Central is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Lund University

AI, Democracy, and Elections

Lund University via Coursera

Overview

Google, IBM & Meta Certificates – 40% Off
One Coursera Plus subscription covers most Professional Certificates on Coursera.
Unlock All Certificates
This is aimed at anyone interested in how AI affects democracy, democratic processes, and elections. AI developments are rapidly altering how we manage information, and we have all heard dire warnings about how society is about to change. One often mooted solution is that the field needs strong political regulation to minimise associated risks. In democracies, that means that the task falls to our democratically elected representatives. But what if the very democratic system itself is changed by AI? To understand more about these matters becomes vital. In this course we first provide a general overview of how AI, democracy and the interconnections between the two can be understood. It then offers two more in-depth takes: one focusing on how and why the use of chatbots can detrimentally impact democratic communication unless we are wary; the other focusing on how AI-mediated information can impact party choice.

Syllabus

  • Welcome
  • Sycophantic AI and the threat to democratic deliberation
    • In this module, we explore how chatbots can detrimentally affect democratic communication by being overly eager to support the prompters’ initial views on political matters.
  • Interaction between information and party choice in the ChatGPT era
    • In this module, you will learn about electoral systems and party choice tendencies, with connection to the current information environment that the ChatGPT era constitutes. We will go through technical features of AI chatbots and relate that to how voters shape preferences for issues and parties.

Taught by

Annika Fredén, Mikael Sundström, and Maria Hedlund

Reviews

Start your review of AI, Democracy, and Elections

Never Stop Learning.

Get personalized course recommendations, track subjects and courses with reminders, and more.

Someone learning on their laptop while sitting on the floor.