Can Democracy Survive the Age of AI?
Will democracy even be possible given the AI tools now available to bad actors? Will our descendants look back on this moment as the end of democracy’s golden age?
These questions came to mind while reading a new article from the World Economic Forum (WEF): “Cognitive manipulation and AI will shape disinformation in 2026. Here’s how to build resilience.” The piece draws from WEF’s Global Risks Report 2026, which ranked “misinformation and disinformation” as the second greatest global risk for 2026 — after “geoeconomic confrontation.” It held the top spot in both 2024 and 2025.
WEF puts it starkly:
“In 2026, the widespread information disorder is a destabilizing systemic force that has the potential to disrupt democracies, erode social cohesion and make existing problems worse, from economic downturns to climate-related crises. We’re facing elections that could indefinitely entrench criminal autocracies, lingering economic uncertainty, increasingly aggressive polarization and imperialism, and more sophisticated AI-mediated narratives. These dynamics are further shaped by AI-generated deepfakes that have become nearly indistinguishable from reality, making it harder to discern what is accurate and offering opportunists plausible deniability to deflect from what is true.”
Bad actors have always tried to disrupt elections for money, power, or fame. What’s different today is the scale and accessibility of the tools available to them — many free of charge. A single person with a cell phone can now sow chaos at scale. And the systems we’ve built reward agents of chaos more than they reward agents of truth.
Social media companies discovered early that engagement — which for them means revenue — depends on the dopamine hits their platforms deliver. Algorithms don’t reward accuracy; they reward emotional reaction, especially anger.
WEF explains:
“Some AI systems and opportunistic influencers actively manipulate content to provoke strong emotional reactions, using behavioural and psychological profiling to tailor messages that appeal to or instigate a specific reaction from targeted groups... Those susceptible to emotional manipulation can be easily identified with micro-targeting, which uses self-reported online data to reveal personality type. Once identified, targeted messaging is selected because it resonates emotionally and will likely be shared because it affirms prior beliefs, stirs up anger or resentment, or is considered humorous... outrage delivers more quickly as it triggers immediate sharing before fact-checking can occur.”
But this need not be democracy’s epitaph. What comes next depends on the choices we make.
Drawing on research from Demos, WEF offers a hopeful framework:
“Disinformation has been a part of society throughout history, and will likely persist in the future. But its sophistication and degree of reach seem amplified with today’s technology. That’s why we have to build resilience — finding ways to protect ourselves from the fallout without sacrificing our fundamental right to speak our minds. Resilience can arise from community investment in verification, deliberation and accountability systems.”
What’s striking about these recommendations is what they don’t do: they don’t abandon the values of liberal democracy. No censorship. No surrender to cynicism. Instead, they call us to embrace those values — civility, pluralism, free expression — and deploy them as our defense.
That’s a vision AVC can stand behind. And it starts close to home: being thoughtful about your own social media use, being diligent about spreading truth within your circles of influence, and urging your elected representatives to take this challenge as seriously as it deserves.
Related News
CNN: “Republicans release AI deepfake of James Talarico as phony videos proliferate in midterm races”
Senate Republicans released an online ad this week in which a real-looking but fake version of a Democratic candidate, fabricated with artificial intelligence, appears to speak directly into the camera for more than a minute.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s deepfake of James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the US Senate race in Texas, is only the latest in a series of AI-generated creations from the national GOP campaign organization in the past year. But it’s the first featuring a phony version of a candidate talking in a lifelike manner for so long – an example of how far AI technology has come in a short time and an indicator of the direction attack ads may be heading.
The Stimson Center: “AI in the Age of Fake (Imagined) Content”
The line between what is real and what is fake is rapidly disappearing. We are at a turning point in the era of misinformation and disinformation, with AI fundamentally reshaping how fabricated content is created and spread. Because this threat is borderless, we urgently need a new framework. A global credibility institute that brings together journalists, researchers, technologists, and policymakers can serve as a shared starting point. Such an initiative can help establish common norms and standards for defining, disclosing, and governing content authenticity. Protecting the truth is a public good problem, and establishing a shared epistemic foundation is critical to preserve trust in the AI era.
Some More Good Reads
Pew Research Center: “In 25-Country Survey, Americans Especially Likely To View Fellow Citizens as Morally Bad”
Americans are more likely than people in other countries surveyed in 2025 to question the morality of their fellow countrymen, according to Pew Research Center surveys in 25 countries.
PsyPost: “American issue polarization surged after 2008 as the left moved further left”
The American public has grown increasingly divided on political issues over the past few decades, but this trend does not appear to be happening on a global scale. A recent paper published in Royal Society Open Science introduces a new way to measure these divisions using machine learning. The results reveal that polarization in the United States spiked heavily between 2008 and 2020, offering a fresh perspective on how political disagreements take shape globally.
PsyPost: “Trump voters who believed conspiracy theories were the most likely to justify the Jan. 6 riots”
A recent study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that people who are highly active in politics and also believe in conspiracy theories are the most likely to justify political violence. The findings provide evidence that conspiracy beliefs alone might not lead to violence, but they can become dangerous when combined with active political engagement. This implies that spreading unverified narratives among already mobilized political groups tends to create a volatile environment.
Phil Williams: “How I Discovered the Nazi Sympathizer Behind U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ A+ ‘Remigration Score’”
Who was behind this support for Tennessee’s Trump-loving 5th District congressman?
Here’s what I discovered:
The only name publicly linked to that “society” appears to be a right-wing Trad Catholic guy who argues “White Christian American Nationalism is the only viable ideology for our people,” that the only true Americans are “White Christians who call this land their Home.”
He believes it is “necessary” to develop “something resembling” the 25-point party platform of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, although it would need to be “re-tooled for modern Western countries.”
He says practicing Jews are “wicked servants of Satan,” and he denies the Holocaust, calling it a “lie” that “dies with the boomers.”
He wants to turn America into a theocracy where even Baptist teachings would be banned. After all, he says, “Jesus is a Catholic.”
He says Canada and the UK need to “liquidate” their immigrants, and he gets his kicks from watching YouTube videos of cops shooting Black Americans.
And, yes, his society believes Andy Ogles is doing a fantastic job of helping to move the country toward the kind of America they desire.
Anthony Bradley: “Doug Wilson Didn’t Change, Evangelical Institutions Did”
Doug Wilson has been advocating theonomy, Christian Reconstructionism, Christian Nationalism, “paleo-Confederate” promotion, and strong anti-Catholic views for more than thirty years. Many people warned about this as early as the late 1990s, but those warnings were largely dismissed by evangelicals, especially within Calvinistic Baptist and Young, Restless, and Reformed (New Calvinism) circles, and those raising concerns were often labeled “woke.”
CBS Texas: “Afghan father, former U.S. military ally, dies in ICE custody in North Texas”
An Afghan father who served with U.S. forces died in immigration custody less than a day after being arrested in North Texas.
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