10.10.2023Workshop for Journalists on «Opinion Shaping in the Digital Space»

In his introduction, DSI Managing Director Markus Christen recalled a DSI survey that revealed what the Swiss population thinks about the use of artificial intelligence (AI). He presented the first results of that survey at the first media workshop in March 2023. After the survey was conducted, AI applications such as ChatGPT were all the talk, and the DSI repeated the survey. «It showed that people have become more critical. They are showing less acceptance of AI,» Christen explained.

Daniel Schwarz, co-founder of the online voting tool «smartvote» presented the «Digitalisierungsmonitor». Analogous to «smartvote,» the tool offers an orientation aid for voters, but focuses on the digital policy positions of the candidates. The survey showed across all parties that candidates see more opportunities than risks in digitalization, said Schwarz. The introduction of e-voting received more support in all parties than it did in 2019. «In terms of the importance of digital issues, there is little progress in the election campaign from the parties. But if you look at the individual candidates, there is a tendency toward more positive assessments toward digitalization.»

DSI professor and co-leader of the DSI Community Democracy, Karsten Donnay, talked about how AI could transform politics and government institutions. «The systems that are being used today are basically about increasing efficiency,» he said. These pose few problems, he added. But Donnay describes automated facial recognition in crime prevention as explosive. «Research shows that such systems are discriminatory and reinforce existing prejudices.» AI can also lower the cost of disinformation, he adds. The U.S. election campaigns show how big an impact fake videos and images can have, he said. In the future, Donnay expects to see more use of facial recognition, but also more localized chatbots that are specifically geared to a country. AI-generated election recommendations are also conceivable, as are applications for parliamentarians to assist with political decisions - a «PolitGPT», so to speak.

In another program item, three NGOs presented themselves. Flurina Wäspi from the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz informed about the foundation's funding focus democracy. Fabian Ligibel presented the Demokratis project, which aims to make it easier for citizens to participate in federal consultations through a digital platform. And Morgane Bonvallat presented the Public Discourse Foundation, founded in April 2023, which is committed to more participation in public discourse and against hate speech in the virtual space.

DSI Director Abraham Bernstein provided the closing remarks. He addressed the question of how diverse news recommendations can be used to strengthen democracy. He presented a pilot study in which test persons were divided into three groups for the use of an app developed specifically for the study. One group received chronological news, the second group received recommended news based on their political views, and the third received more diversified recommendations. The pilot study showed that the latter group had a higher tolerance for different interests than the group that received news more closely aligned with their interests.