AI’s chilling effect on democracy: Research scientist Michał Klincewicz

People will eventually get tired of the internet. They’ll return to older forms of connection -going to temples, dancing, sharing meals, and meeting strangers again- because this constant digital engagement is simply unsustainable 

 When societies are flooded with AI-generated information, citizens lose their ability to process evidence and make informed choices. That threatens the foundation of democracy itself

AI-driven manipulation of content is becoming a new form of colonialism, one that extends control and influence over developing nations through digital and algorithmic power

Our brains react differently when overwhelmed with information. AI exploits this by flooding the zone with noise, making it harder for people to recognize what truly matters

 Democracy is at risk not just because of technology, but because people are losing connection with each other. Rebuilding those real human ties is the only sustainable path forward  

Michał Klincewicz, a research scientist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, shares his views with Daily Miror on the impact of AI generated content on human life in a democratic society.  In a brief interview with the Daily Mirror on the sidelines of a summit on disinformation here in Slovenia, he said that democracy is challenged in multiple ways because of AI.

His research involves moral enhancement with AI, the use of video games to investigate moral cognition, and the temporal dimension of cognition, including conscious perception, experience, dreams, and memory. 

Michał is also strongly interested in ethically problematic consequences of emerging technologies, such as autonomous weapon systems. Michał received his PhD in in 2013 at City University of New York, Graduate Center.

Q In the era of AI, how has AI challenged democracy across the world?

I think there’s a lot of ways. This is a really hard question because this happens at an individual level. I think that our ability to process information and to act on that information is central to being informed citizens in a democracy.

If you can’t make decisions that are based on evidence, you can’t vote properly. That’s one thing. I think there’s another side of this, which has to do with policy and response to the electorate.

As for people that are in government or policymakers or journalists, if they don’t have proper information or if they don’t know what’s going on, they don’t know how to act either. They are not going to be responsive to the citizens. A politician thinks that what’s going to get him or her elected is doing ‘something’. The reason why they believe in something is because of misinformation campaign. Then, they will do ‘something’. It will damage the country or their chances of being re-elected. There are a hundred other ways.

QThere is a way the AI technology is used to flood people with information. How does it influence the process?

I think one of the ways that it happens is through comments on social media. So, there are bots, fake personas on Twitter, X, Facebook, Mastodon or whatever you’re using, fake comments on their newspapers- all are basically saying the same thing. That’s a part of it. Content that becomes viral - slop, AI slop.

All of this can be coordinated through fake news sites, through links, to give an impression of a particular narrative. That’s how you flood the zone.

QNow, when you are flooded with information, how does the brain react?

If you’re walking through a very busy market, you find a lot of people, shops and other things that you see. They’re very complicated, and colourful. Your brain reacts really differently than when you’re walking through, say, an empty parking lot. There are less things to capture your attention. 

So, in that empty parking lot, if there’s a, say, a red ball on the ground, your brain will pick that up right away and bring your attention to it.

If there’s a red ball is in the place full of markets and people, your brain is not going to pick up that red ball because the red ball has to compete with all these other things to grab your attention. 

In an empty parking lot, there’s nothing that competes with it. Your brain is going to pick it up. Now, your brain knows this. It knows the difference between these two kinds of environments. So, it changes the way it processes information when it’s faced with this flood of different stimuli.

When there’s a lot of things happening, your brain functions differently than when there’s not a lot of things happening. That’s just basically the difference.

Q How is AI used to manipulate that brain power for electoral purposes in a democracy?

In that case, propaganda is used primarily to generate content that may, on the face of it, appear to be generated by humans. It is AI-generated content that appears to be human-generated content, whether its comments, news articles or images or pictures or whatever. That’s basically how it works.

Q How should people prepare themselves for the situation in this current era?

I think people need to be more connected to each other so they can disconnect from the internet more.

Q Disconnect from the internet? So, it means people have invented something which is going to be harmful to them in the future. Is it?

I think that’s right.

QSo, in that context, at one point of time in the future, scientists will put a stop to the development of AI. What is your prognosis?

I think at some point just people are going to get tired of the internet. In social media, they’re going to reconnect with each other in a very old-fashioned way. They’re going to start going to the temple again. They’re going to start, you know, dancing again. They’re going to start having meals together again and meeting strangers and stuff like that. I think that’s the future because this is unsustainable.

QHow do you support your argument in that sense further?

This will have effects on the world. These effects are going to be negative.

There will be people in power, whom we don’t want to be in power. People will become poorer, more oppressed, less knowledgeable, less competent to make decisions. And at some point, they will connect their State to the way they’re being fed with information through the internet.

QIn this way, the countries with the power and authority to manipulate AI will influence the developing world. They will have a big influence on countries such as Sri Lanka. It is unreasonable. What is your view?

Of course. I mean, I think it’s a new form of colonialism. I think that it is colonialism through the internet and AI.

Q Have you done any case study in this regard in terms of a particular election?

No, I’m really not a social scientist. I don’t know enough about the social dimension of this problem.

But the examples that we found of the effect of ‘sloppaganda’ were mostly in the United States according to the paper we wrote. We wrote the paper in January, 2025. At that time, what was visible was the election of Donald Trump.

I think slop and AI generated content surely is going to flood other places.

QToday, AI technology is mainly with the Western world driven by the United States. On the other hand, China is also developing AI technology. These countries are geopolitical rivals. What will be the future in that context?

These two ideological rivals are developing AI. Maybe they’re fighting for our brains- for real estate in our brain.