On the political role of artificial intelligence technologies: results of an experimental study

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence technologies into various spheres of social life, including politics, is generating a complex array of opportunities and challenges for political actors. As Al-generated content is increasingly consumed by diverse population groups, it is critical to investigate its influence, particularly the impact of inherent “political views” and semantic “distortions” on individual and group consciousness. This article examines how individuals perceive political content produced by a popular AI application, using the well-known internet resource ChatGPT as a case study. An experimental test was designed and conducted to determine how participants assess the nature of a political text -using definitions of the term “political values” - and to gauge their perception of its ideological load and the expression of interests of the individual, the state, and society. The methodology incorporated a suite of applied methods, including questionnaires, scaling, and statistical and comparative analysis. Participants were political science students from Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, a sample aligned with the study's specific objectives. The findings indicate that participants generally hold neutral or positive views on the development of modern AI technologies, with minimal expression of pessimism. A key result of the testing was that participants correctly identified AI-generated text in only 50% of cases, with recognition rates below 50% in half the instances and slightly above 50% in one case. Furthermore, participants consistently rated the degree of ideology in AI-generated definitions of “political values” as moderately low. Based on the participants' assessments, the study concludes by identifying the primary focal points that the AI model emphasizes in its interpretation of political values. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

Keywords

Authors

References