On the 20th August, AI4DEM lab member Valentin Robu from CWI gave a presentation of the work of the centre at the 2nd International Workshop on Democracy and AI (DemocrAI 2023): co-located with IJCAI 202, the 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the premier international AI conference taking place between 19th-25th August 2023 in Macao S.A.R. of China.
The workshop was lively and well attended, showing the growing interest of the international AI community in issues of AI and democracy. The audience was internationally diverse: it included many researchers from the University of Kyoto (the main workshop organisers) and other Japanese universities, but also researchers studying EU law on this topic from Cork (Ireland), University of Southampton in the UK, United Nations University in Macau, University of Waterloo (Canada), ETH Zurich, Australia, US, Madrid (Spain) and TU Delft (NL), among several others.
There was considerable interest in the topics presented by Dr. Robu, in particular around the way AI4DEM researchers at CWI model the spread of disinformation in social networks, as well as how dissemination of biased news can lead to polarisation. The researchers at the workshop identified links with their own research on these topics. Other talks and workshop discussions highlighted the importance of designing AI tools that can build democratic consensus and help with democratic decision making, as well as taking into account multiple viewpoints.
Overall, the the research team at CWI plans to continue to build strong links with the national and international scientific community, also with CWI hosting in 2024 a semester programme on the Impact and Potential of AI in Society, Media and Democracy.
