Blue and Red voters — Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

Artificial Intelligence and the 2023 Election

By Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science and Maya Wiley, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights:

"The threats to a free and fair election this year, next year, and beyond were already profound. Election denial from 2020 is still a dominant and debunked narrative online and off. It and more than a decade of state-by-state laws and practices have proclaimed open season on voting rights and suppressed voter participation, especially among Black, Latino, and Native American voters, creating access barriers for people with disabilities, the elderly, and even college students. In Florida, a state that has been one of the most aggressive anti-voting rights states, Black voter turnout dropped from 62% in 2018 to 40% in 2022. In a recent poll, 31% of Trump supporters and 24% of Biden supporters agreed with the statement 'Democracy is no longer a viable system, and America should explore alternative forms of government to ensure stability and progress.'

Let that sink in.

So how does AI fit into this disconcerting landscape?"