You may not be shocked to hear that governments are using generative AI to manipulate conversations and automatically censor what’s online. But now we have a better sense of how this is happening, when, and where: a new report shows that political actors in 16 countries, including Pakistan, Nigeria, and the United States, have used generative AI over the past year to exert increased control over the internet.
Last week, Freedom House, a human rights advocacy group, released its annual review of the state of internet freedom around the world; it’s one of the most important trackers out there if you want to understand changes to digital free expression.
As I wrote, the report shows that generative AI is already a game changer in geopolitics. But this isn’t the only concerning finding. Globally, internet freedom has never been lower, and the number of countries that have blocked websites for political, social, and religious speech has never been higher. Also, the number of countries that arrested people for online expression reached a record high.
These issues are particularly urgent before we head into a year with over 50 elections worldwide; as Freedom House has noted, election cycles are times when internet freedom is often most under threat. The organization has issued some recommendations for how the international community should respond to the growing crisis, and I also reached out to another policy expert for her perspective.
Call me an optimist, but talking with them this week made me feel like there are at least some actionable things we might do to make the internet safer and freer. Here are three key things they say tech companies and lawmakers should do:
- Increase transparency around AI models
- Be cautious when using AI to scan and filter content
- Develop ways to better label AI generated content, especially related to elections
