Government and Autonomy

AI shaping borders and freedom

It’s not all fun and games. The immense availability of data and AI simultaneously opens us up to the risk of authoritarianism and the rise of oppression and collective empowerment to combat threats to democracy worldwide. At the moment, we have some striking contradictions of power and protection being exerted in very different ways based on a system of shared societal values. In this section, we will look at how AI will be leveraged in governmental capacities and what it means for all of us as consumers and makers alike.

Governments will increasingly need to focus on preserving their country’s ecosystems and the fallout from climate change, and with that focus, there will need to be some degree of investment as well. The private sector can only do so much, and we hope that governmental bodies will use their influence for the betterment of their citizens. Let’s take an issue such as voting, which, at least in the US, has seen many headlines during the last few presidential elections. Companies such as Microsoft are developing electronic voting systems, such as ElectionGuard, as part of their Defending Democracy Program to allow for safe, secure, and verifiable voting processes in the future.