On this episode of the Plutopia News Network podcast, security technologist and author Bruce Schneier joins the hosts to discuss his new book Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship. Schneier frames democracy as an information-processing system that aggregates citizens’ preferences into policy, and defines AI broadly as computer systems doing tasks once done by humans. He argues that AI is fundamentally a power-amplifying tool: in the hands of small-d democrats it can strengthen participation, transparency, and decision-making, but in the hands of authoritarians or monopolistic tech corporations it can just as easily supercharge surveillance, manipulation, and control. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes that many fears attributed to “AI itself” are really fears about capitalism, corporate power, and concentrated ownership of technology, and he offers real-world examples where AI is already helping journalism, courts, voters, and legislatures. Rather than utopian hype or doom, Schneier advocates a clear-eyed, politics-first view: AI’s impact on democracy will depend less on the technology and more on who controls it and how we choose to govern its use.
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Bruce Schneier:
But what we want to say is AI is a tool. It’s a power-enhancing tool. In the hands of someone who wants better democracy, it’s a tool for better democracy. In the hands of an authoritarian, it’s a tool for better authoritarianism. And that’s what it’s going to do. And a lot of times, people confuse the evils of AI with the evils of the corporations controlling the AI. And I think that is the most important thing that I say to the people who say nothing’s good here. And you’re right, in a lot of ways, nothing’s good there. It’s not the technology’s fault. It’s the fault of the monopolists. It’s the fault of Silicon Valley. It’s the fault of the white male tech billionaires. That’s where You want to address
Links:
- TED talk: Dustin Ballard
- Story in The Verge on Swiss model Aspertus
- Text of “Franchise”, by Isaac Asimov
- DonorAtlas
- Albanian procurement minister Diella
