How Ai Might Impact Democracy Westminster Foundation For Democracy

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 6, 2025, 11:01 AM

how ai might impact democracy westminster foundation for democracy

Policy paper by Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos: “…provides a working definition of AI for Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and the broader democracy support sector. It then provides a preliminary review of how AI is being used to enhance democratic practices worldwide, focusing on several themes including: accountability and transparency, elections, environmental democracy, inclusion, openness and participation, and women’s... The paper also highlights potential risks and areas of development in the future. Finally, the paper shares five recommendations for WFD and democracy support organisations to consider advancing their ‘digital democracy’ agenda. This policy paper also offers additional information regarding AI classification and other resources for identifying good practice and innovative solutions. Its findings may be relevant to WFD staff members, international development practitioners, civil society organisations, and persons interested in using emerging technologies within governmental settings…(More)”.

Did you come across – or create – a compelling project/report/book/app at the leading edge of innovation in governance? Share it with us at info@thelivinglib.org so that we can add it to the Collection! arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community?

Learn more about arXivLabs. Nicol Turner Lee, Joseph B. Keller, Cameron F. Kerry, Aaron Klein, Anton Korinek, Mark MacCarthy, Mark Muro, Chinasa T. Okolo, Courtney C. Radsch, John Villasenor, Darrell M.

West, Tom Wheeler, Andrew W. Wyckoff, Rashawn Ray, Mishaela Robison Melanie W. Sisson, Colin Kahl, Sun Chenghao, Xiao Qian Norman Eisen, Renée Rippberger, Jonathan Katz Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of generating humanlike text and multimodal content are now widely available.

Here we ask what impact this will have on the democratic process. We consider the consequences of AI for citizens' ability to make educated and competent choices about political representatives and issues (epistemic impacts). We explore how AI might be used to destabilize or support the mechanisms, including elections, by which democracy is implemented (material impacts). Finally, we discuss whether AI will strengthen or weaken the principles on which democracy is based (foundational impacts). The arrival of new AI systems clearly poses substantial challenges for democracy. However, we argue that AI systems also offer new opportunities to educate and learn from citizens, strengthen public discourse, help people to find common ground, and reimagine how democracies might work better.

Competing interests: The following authors are full- or part-time remunerated employees of commercial developers of AI technology: M. Bakker, I.G., N.M., M.H.T. and M. Botvinick (Google DeepMind), E.D. and D.G. (Anthropic) and T.E.

(OpenAI), A.P. (Fundamental AI Research (FAIR), Meta). C.S. and K.H. are part-time remunerated government employees (at the UK AI Security Institute). D.S.

and S.H. are employees of the non-profit organization Collective Intelligence Project. A.O. is an employee of the AI & Democracy Foundation. E.S. is an employee of Demos.

None of these employers had any role in the preparation of the manuscript or the decision to publish. The remaining authors declare no competing interests. Nature Human Behaviour (2025)Cite this article Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of generating humanlike text and multimodal content are now widely available. Here we ask what impact this will have on the democratic process. We consider the consequences of AI for citizens’ ability to make educated and competent choices about political representatives and issues (epistemic impacts).

We explore how AI might be used to destabilize or support the mechanisms, including elections, by which democracy is implemented (material impacts). Finally, we discuss whether AI will strengthen or weaken the principles on which democracy is based (foundational impacts). The arrival of new AI systems clearly poses substantial challenges for democracy. However, we argue that AI systems also offer new opportunities to educate and learn from citizens, strengthen public discourse, help people to find common ground, and reimagine how democracies might work better. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

How Ai Might Impact Democracy Westminster Foundation For Democracy

People Also Search

Policy Paper By Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos: “…provides A Working Definition Of

Did You Come Across – Or Create – A Compelling

Learn More About ArXivLabs. Nicol Turner Lee, Joseph B. Keller,

West, Tom Wheeler, Andrew W. Wyckoff, Rashawn Ray, Mishaela Robison

Here We Ask What Impact This Will Have On The