The promise and perils of AI: Issues at stake in the 2024 election

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming every aspect of society, from education and work to health care and finance.  Its widespread adoption also has started to impact global politics, from elections to international conflict. The tradeoffs between AI’s positive and more harmful effects are still being debated. While AI could allow transformative advances in scientific discovery and democratize access to high quality, personalized education, it also has the potential to entrench explicit and implicit biases, erode students’ privacy, and create overdependence on AI tools.

It may also disrupt electoral processes, by lowering barriers to producing mis- and disinformation as users interact with AI systems to learn more about candidates and their positions. Congress has yet to pass legislation to manage the generation and distribution of deepfakes or the rapid spread of false information to the public.  There is also still limited understanding of the short- and long-term impacts of AI on the workforce, and how policymakers can best assist workers who are vulnerable to automation and prepare young people to succeed in a more AI-driven economy.

The Brookings Institution and Spelman College convened on September 9 and 10 to discuss the issues policymakers will confront with the increasing adoption and implementation of AI and what policies or guardrails will be needed to seize upon its opportunities while mitigating its risks. The first day of the event featured remarks by Spelman College President Helene D. Gayle, followed by a fireside chat between Brookings President Cecilia Rouse and AI expert and former White House official Alondra Nelson. The second day focused on the policy implications of AI, beginning with a framing keynote by Brookings Senior Fellow Nicol Turner Lee. It will be followed by a panel on the risks of AI in disinformation, racial bias, and workforce displacement and a second panel assessing its possible benefits through increased innovation, efficiency, and opportunity.

Online viewers submited questions via email to [email protected].

This event is a part of Election ’24: Issues at Stake, a Brookings initiative aimed to bring public attention to consequential policy issues confronting voters and policymakers in the run up to the 2024 election. This includes equipping leaders with insights and policy ideas to help them govern in 2025 and beyond.