Time Magazine called the yr 2024 “Super election yr”. An incredible 4 billion individuals are eligible to vote this yr in countries around the globe. Many are on the African continentwhere presidential, parliamentary and legislative elections have already taken place or are planned for the second half of the yr.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will play a significant role in elections in lots of countries. In fact, already does. AI systems are used in various ways. They analyze large amounts of knowledge, reminiscent of voter behavior. They operate automated chatbots for voter participation. They authenticate voters and detect cyber threats.
But many experts and most of the people appear to be unsure what to think concerning the use of AI in African electoral processes. It is commonly seen as a simultaneous promising and dangerous.
We are experts in transnational governance, whose ongoing research goals to define the challenges that AI could pose to legitimate governance in Africa. We wish to help create a base of empirical evidence that the continent's electoral bodies can use to leverage the potential advantages of AI and similar technologies, without ignoring the risks.
The impact of AI on electoral democracy in Africa will depend essentially on two aspects. First, the legitimacy and trust of the population in AI. Second, the power of African states to administer, regulate and control the usage of AI by all political actors, including government and opposition parties.
Varied examples
It could be too simplistic to say that the usage of AI in elections is either good or bad. In fact, it will possibly be each. This essentially relies on two key aspects: public trust in AI and the power of African states to manage the usage of AI by key stakeholders.
Identity politics, diversity and digital illiteracy must even be considered. They all play a task in increasing polarization and the query of whether political constituencies are particularly vulnerable to Disinformation and misinformation.
For example, during Kenya Election 2017The consulting firm Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have used AI to focus on voters with false information. This could have influenced the final result.
In South Africa there are Increasing awareness that anonymous influencers, who are sometimes situated on the extremes of the political spectrum, contribute significantly to the spread of false and disinformation on the Internet. These personalities, who’re largely unknown to most of the people, bring highly emotional and polarizing content into discussions without them being moderated live and appropriately – often through automated processes.
But AI also has the potential to extend the legitimacy of elections. Kenya’s The amount The project monitored social media for hate speech using a pc evaluation often called Natural language processing. Once malicious content was flagged by the AI, it was removed. In the 2021 Sierra Leone parliamentary elections Platform for election statement and evaluation Detect and combat hate speech, disinformation and incitement to violence.
Similarly, recent polls in South Africa used AI-powered bots to curb the spread of disinformation.
Elsewhere, facial recognition technology has been utilized in Ghana 2020 parliamentary elections to confirm voters and stop identity fraud. Nigeria’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System 2019 Duplicate registrations were detected, improving the accuracy of voter lists.
Lessons and challenges
These cases offer worthwhile lessons for other countries on the continent – each by way of what works and what doesn’t.
In most African countries, there are several obstacles that electoral authorities must overcome. One of them is the shortage of expert professionals in data science and machine learning. Another is the limited technological infrastructure. There are also Regulatory and policy gaps be overcome.
And ethical concerns can’t be ignored. Kenya’s Service number national ID system and Nigeria's telecommunications company were criticized for inadequate data protection. They were also accused of using AI technology for surveillance.
In South Africa, a lawsuit from 2021 took motion against Facebook since it allegedly violated the information protection rights of its users.
African countries must address legitimate public concerns about ethics and data protection in voting technology. This includes developing robust normative, institutional and collaborative frameworks to manage the usage of AI in a good, transparent and accountable manner. African states must seek to sovereignty At AI systems – that’s, they have to develop their very own systems suitable for local purposes, fairly than simply importing systems from elsewhere.
The framework we describe should provide clear guidelines for promoting African cultural values protect human rights. They must even be designed to forestall the misuse of AI to control elections or suppress political opposition.
Public trust in AI systems may also be strengthened in a variety of ways, including awareness-raising and education campaigns. Transparency and accountability mechanisms that impose sanctions and supply redress for breaches of trust and law are also crucial.
There are examples
There are already several initiatives from which the framework we’ve described may be derived. One example is the Association of African Electoral Authorities. Principles and guidelines for the usage of digital and social media in elections in Africa.
Many African countries are already working to deal with the challenges and opportunities of AI and develop appropriate governance mechanisms. Egypt's National Council for Artificial Intelligence and Kenya's Distributed Ledger and Artificial Intelligence Taskforce are examples of ongoing initiatives that other countries’ electoral authorities can learn from.
Overall, sound governance shall be critical for the successful integration of AI systems to advertise the legitimacy of African political processes.
