Since our liberal democracies generally employ forms of representativeness to their institutions, the impact of AI on free and fair elections is also one of the key ways in which technology affects our polities. The level of acceptance of the results from the elections - the legitimacy of the outcome - rests largely on how those who end up with less power shares in the representative system see the fairness of the election process itself.
The experimental component of Module A aims to further characterise internet users' behaviours when faced with online choices potentially undermining their autonomy: how people evaluate AI-generated information and/or content selected through AI-based algorithms, and how people are influenced by AI-based algorithms in their online choices.
The current EU approach to AI regulation faces several challenges and limitations that need to be addressed. One of the main issues is to what degree product legislation approach is fit for mitigating more systematic and democratic risks of AI systems and the lack of resources for regulatory and enforcement agencies. Another challenge is the compatibility of the EU approach with the collective bargaining and co-determination models that are prevalent in some member states.
There are both instrumental and intrinsic reasons to value democracy. In short, democracy is valuable instrumentally because:
(1) democracy can assist us in producing laws and policies that protect the rights and interests of citizens,
(2) democracy more often than other systems produces the right laws and policies (there are epistemic benefits to democratic decision-making), and
(3) democracy can improve the people in it through increased autonomy and knowledge (Christiano and Bajaj, 2022).