Alaska political experts give warnings about AI but also cite benefits to campaigns

As what promises to be a close national election approaches, artificial intelligence wielded by political operatives could improve the campaign process or dramatically distort elections, experts say.

There are plenty of reasons to be worried that the artificial intelligence trend will do the latter, said political experts on a panel at an Anchorage conference on artificial intelligence.

The one-day conference was hosted by the Alaska Small Business Development Center, a U.S. Small Business Administration-funded office based at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

At the event, the political panel described ways that artificial intelligence can be used constructively in campaigns and elections. It can identify blocs of swing voters or neglected voters, for example. It can be employed as a fact-checking tool to counter falsehoods, another example of constructive use. And it can save campaign workers time that might be devoted to minutiae in the same way that it saves time for businesses, scientists and others using artificial intelligence to process data, they said.

“It’s inherently a great tool. But there are people who are using it in nefarious ways, which is what happens with all powerful tools that are out there,” said Amber Lee, a marketing consultant with extensive campaign experience.

She called it a “threat to democracy,” especially with no effective regulation in sight.

Another panelist leery of artificial intelligence in politics is former Anchorage Mayor and U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.

Begich invoked the specter of waves of disinformation, lies that are generated in convincing fashion to play on voters’ emotions.

“Fake news becomes real news. Real news becomes history in that transition,” he said.

Begich noted that he is no technophobe. When he was running for mayor in 2000, he established what was then a rarity in politics: a website, begich.com. That made waves among political observers at the time, he said. “They looked at me like I was an insane human being,” he said.

But now, with federal regulation largely impossible and traditional news organizations withering, there are fewer guardrails to combat those who would use artificial intelligence to spread disinformation, Begich said.

“Who will hold them accountable as the free press continues to disintegrate into oblivion?” he asked. It will not be cable news or streaming news, as that is all opinion, he said. “So the accountability is missing in this equation and it’s not getting better; it’s getting worse.”

Political strategist John-Henry Heckendorn, now managing partner of consulting firm Ship Creek Group, said he’s less concerned about the artificial intelligence-generated falsehoods than about other systemic problems. Misinformation and disinformation is not new in politics, he said, referring to the “yellow journalism” of the 19th century. And it has been overcome in the past, he said.

The real threats, Heckendorn said, come from underlying conditions of social isolation, political polarization and the distortions created by vast amounts of money poured into politics, not artificial intelligence itself. “It’s the most scary-sounding thing on the top of an intensive set of problems,” he said.

He is also less worried about artificial intelligence-created misinformation, he said, than about how the rise of artificial intelligence will make the big-money political establishment even more powerful and more dominant. An Alaska response, he said, would be to strengthen the Alaska Public Offices Commission, “which is becoming increasingly impotent” because of sparse funding.

Artificial intelligence has already emerged in troubling ways in U.S. and international politics. When President Joe Biden announced his reelection bid, the national Republican Party created an artificial intelligence-generated video of a dystopian second Biden term, said lobbyist Miles Baker, the panel moderator. Artificial intelligence was used to create fake Biden robocalls to voters during the New Hampshire primary, Baker said. And it became a problem internationally, he said, citing elections in India and Indonesia.

But things might be different in Alaska, where voters expect to know their government officials personally, the panelists said.

And no matter how advanced artificial technology becomes, it cannot take the place of face-to-face contact, they said.

“It’s about human connection, going door-to-door, knocking on doors and looking in their eyes,” said former state representative and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Halcro, R-Anchorage. “As a former candidate, I can’t tell you how many people told me, ‘I voted for you because you were the only person who knocked on my door.’”

Other sessions at the conference addressed ways that businesses, scientists, government agencies and artists can use artificial intelligence to improve their work — or fall victim to it.

Many scientists are enthusiastic about the way AI can help process vast amounts of data into useful information. Conference speaker Lauren Decker, chief scientific officer for PolArctic, described how her small oceanographic and data science company is using artificial intelligence to model sea ice and other navigation hazards in Arctic waters off Alaska and Russia.

But artists, though they can use AI as a creative tool, expressed some fears about their work being hijacked. “That worries me, being made redundant in an industry full of bean counters,” said Paul Linford, a composer who spoke at an artists’ panel.

To serve Alaskans who are interested in the promises of artificial intelligence, worried about its pitfalls or both, the Small Business Development Center has launched an Artificial Intelligence Resource Center that “aims to demystify” the technology, according to the organization’s website.

The announcement, timed to coincide with the Anchorage conference, said the center will be the first of its kind in the nation. It is intended to connect small businesses with AI technology and training.

Understanding AI has become a must in the current business environment, just as the development of computers and the internet were in the past, said Jon Bittner, executive director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center.

“The technology is so ubiquitous and so easy to use that there’s no way to stop it at this point,” Bittner said.

The Alaska Small Business Development Center serves thousands of Alaska companies each year. Up to 3,000 get one-on-one consultations, and thousands more participate in workshops, he said.

The federal government defines companies with fewer than 500 employees as small, so almost all Alaska companies fit that category, Bittner said. Many of those served by the center are sole proprietors and independent contractors, he said.

Through the new artificial intelligence service, small businesses can learn how to use AI to address some specific Alaska problems, he said. For example, the statewide workforce shortage that is getting worse over time can be offset somewhat by the efficiencies that artificial intelligence can achieve, he said. The center can also help Alaskans in rural areas where internet connectivity is new avoid some of the online fraud attempts that are likely to come, with rural-based Alaska Native corporations as potential targets, he said.

There are fears among many that artificial intelligence will displace workers, Bittner acknowledged. But that does not have to be the case, he said.

“What I am actually seeing is people who understand how to use AI are going to replace those who don’t,” he said.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.