Big Tech Is Destroying Democracy. Here’s How to Fight Back.
A conversation with Nobel laureate Maria Ressa.
Big Tech's focus on monetizing consumer attention while undermining news media's business models has contributed to a decline in democracy. Filipino American journalist Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, contends that Big Tech is destroying democracy. In her upcoming book, The Fight Back: A Citizen's Guide to Standing Up to Dictators, she outlines what ordinary citizens can do to combat this issue and what countries can do, particularly through the United Nations.
Ressa explains that artificial intelligence has evolved through three phases. The first, around a decade ago, involved social media and machine learning creating personalized clones of individuals, leading to micro-targeting. The second phase, starting in 2022 and 2023, saw the emergence of large language models (LLMs), such as chatbots, which altered the information users encountered.
The current phase involves agents and multi-agents, which pose a threat to agency itself, as citizens grant these AI systems permission to act on their behalf.
Ressa emphasizes that the problem has been ongoing for a decade, with no significant progress in protecting citizens. She advocates for action at the United Nations, suggesting that countries can collaborate through the General Assembly to address the challenges posed by Big Tech. By working together, nations can create the U.N.'s independent, international panel on AI and the Global Dialogue for AI Governance, which recently produced a preliminary report on AI risks.
This collaborative approach, despite potential conflicts between countries and Big Tech interests, highlights the potential for progress in establishing AI guardrails.
Written by urgent.news from Foreign Policy's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
