Schneier on Security

How Candidates Could Use AI for Good

Refract AI Intelligence Digest

BLUF

Candidates are ignoring AI's potential to improve democratic engagement while focusing on its misuse for disinformation.

NEWS

Co-authored by Nathan E. Sanders, this piece highlights how AI is exacerbating voter anxiety and enabling political slopaganda during the US midterms. It contrasts these risks with untapped opportunities for candidates to use AI tools for deeper constituent listening and inclusive policy formulation.

Why I Care

Election integrity and public trust are at stake as AI-driven disinformation erodes confidence in democratic processes. Voters face increased anxiety, while candidates risk losing touch with constituents if they fail to adopt beneficial AI applications.

Next Steps

Campaign teams should audit current AI usage for compliance and explore ethical tools for constituent feedback by the next election cycle. Policymakers must establish guidelines ensuring AI serves engagement rather than manipulation before the 2026 midterms conclude.

This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian. There are plenty of signs that AI will make all of our experiences of the US midterm elections worse. Voters have anxiety about AI’s impacts on the country. Politicos are using AI deepfakes to spread lies. The White House is posting slopaganda. Meanwhile, candidates are missing a real opportunity to use AI to make campaigning better. The technology can help candidates listen more deeply to voters’ concerns, engage constituents more inclusively, and formulate policy platforms that are more responsive to our input. There are vanishingly few examples of this in ...
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Source: Schneier on Security ·

This digest was generated by Refract AI Collective to help the public sector security community stay informed.