Nthe last session of Latin America Global Foruma, which took place over two days at the Union League Club, discussed AI, its regulation for responsible use and how it can influence democracies and elections.
The former Dominican president and president of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, Leonel Fernández, considered that AI could affect electoral processes, above all, because algorithms could be used that contribute to generating a wrong perception of reality and thus deceive the voter.
“Democracy would be affected because it would no longer be the legitimate representation of the popular will, but it would be a manipulated, uninformed, distorted will and then there would be a triumph of post-truth”, said Fernández, during the forum that took place during the UN General Assembly.
To avoid distortions in the next electoral processes due to AI and so that this does not affect democracies around the world, lawyer José Luis Vargas Valdez demanded speed in regulation, in the establishment of non-negotiable minimums with the industry and in the creation of norms and institutions through global efforts.
A professor of Constitutional Law at the Complutense University of Madrid, Mario Hernández, spoke about the two regulations that the European Union (EU) is promoting on the regulation of AI, which are expected to be ready in May 2024.
“These are not national regulatory processes, but international ones, and in one of them other states outside the EU even participate”, explained Hernández.
The event was attended by the expert on Freedom of Expression and Elections from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Albertina Piterbarg, who argued that freedom of expression is fundamental and that it is necessary to be aware of the four 'v's ', namely, the volume of information transmitted, the speed with which it propagates, the virality and the likelihood of creating content that appears authentic, but is misleading.
For Piterbarg, AI impacts political and social processes in many ways, as well as the free circulation of ideas, and added that UNESCO is working on its regulatory framework.
