DEMOCRACY AND DELIBERATION IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: THE POWER OF BIG TECH, DIGITAL REVOLUTIONS, AND THE POLITICS OF THE DOG WHISTLE

Abstract

The overall objective of this article was to study social platforms and the political transformations brought about by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Using a mixed-methods approach qualitative and quantitative, combining bibliographic, statistical, and conceptual analyses, it concluded that the internet is a free and autonomous territory that allows for citizen engagement. The digital revolutions that swept away autocratic governments attest to this autonomy. However, the control and surveillance exercised by Big Tech drastically limit this autonomy. This power stems from two reasons: first, Big Tech companies are powerful economic blocs of geopolitical power and global finance whose projects aim to dominate the world. Second, based on data extraction, Big Tech companies impose mathematical prediction models whose aim is to carry out an ideologically neutral policy of synoptic rationality. This claim is nothing more than a policy of managing effects, as opposed to the democratic policy of seeking the causes of problems. Algorithmic prediction models have transformed political communications. In the logic of whistleblowing politics, messages are personalized and targeted to the most desirable citizens. These are opinion models embedded in mathematics that reflect the choices, objectives, and ideologies of their creators. These models weaken centrist political forces and reinforce the extremes of the political spectrum.