Prompting Democracy? – Limits and Opportunities of Generative AI

AI has become a natural part of our daily life and work. Despite or precisely because of AI’s supposed benefits, we as a society need to address how to approach this technology and how to deal with it critically and constructively. Given the current challenges, how can we use generative AI in a productive and also responsible, human-first way? We take as our starting point the guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI developed by AlgorithmWatch (AW). The principles described in these guidelines urge us to critically reflect on the use of generative AI in political work and beyond.

In this lightning talk, we will discuss the risks of using generative AI uncritically – from algorithmic discrimination to political interference to resource exploitation. We will examine in which areas human decision-making takes priority over machine decision-making. After briefly introducing AlgorithmWatch’s guidelines, we will present various use cases to explain the principles. The goal is to develop suggestions and approaches for how to implement these principles at your organization and in your work routines.