How Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used in Politics & Government?

Artificial Intelligence, that poses an ambiguous take for society, considers it “a bane” or “a boon”. Some of us might believe in the fact that “in the coming years, many of the existing jobs will become automated that results in an escalation in unemployment. However, it is a myth like other AI misconceptions. (Read here the top 5 myths about Artificial Intelligence)   

 

Now, the question arises here is, “will we reach a stage where human beings will be eliminated in political decision making?” and “Should human decision making be rejected and replaced with data-driven decision making, powered by artificial intelligence?” Probably yes, or answer might be no, let’s learn through this blog.

 

 

AI in Politics

 

We have seen many politicians studying people’s perspectives by employing AI techniques and then modifying their views accordingly to gain more supporters. Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign, Narendra Modi in 2014, Donald Trump in 2016 are all prime examples of how artificial intelligence can be a successful tool in politics.

 

In the current situation, there is growing interest in both the applications of AI technology as well as its potential threats to individuals or society. Policymakers have to choose a method to govern a wide variety of AI technologies and applications which will have a dramatic impact on society and create lots of opportunities and benefits in general. According to this research paper, policymakers generally have two main approaches which are listed below :

 

1. Preemptively approach - In this approach policymakers ban certain applications that have potential threats to the society also known as precautionary approach.

 

2. Permissionless innovation -  In this approach, they can prioritize experimentation and collaboration as a default measure, while addressing issues as they arise. 

 

 

Can policymakers adopt data-driven policies?

 

Artificial intelligence could be one the most powerful tools for policymakers to pursue a data-driven policy approach, with machine learning, predictive analytics techniques, it will provide a precise image of what the country needs and how its problems could be solved. 

 

Let’s take an example: suppose with AI we can predict certain vulnerabilities in the economy that could lead to more unemployment, we could solve them beforehand.

 

“By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”    ― Eliezer Yudkowsky”

 

Conventionally, decisions making were heavily influenced while taking into consideration many factors, apart from evidence such as personal experience, instinct, hype, and belief. 

 

But currently, technological advancements give an enormous amount of capabilities to analyze large amounts of data within seconds that are enabling decision-makers to cut these distortions. 

 

Data-driven policies will empower the government to be more responsive towards its citizens, resulting in a better democratic system.

 

Another example of data driven techniques which impacted the sports industry read our blog on Role Of Business Intelligence In The Sports Industry we discussed how Billy Beane employed statistical analysis tools to compile one of the best winning baseball teams while maintaining minimum payroll. (Willing to learn about some business intelligence tools and techniques in 2020, click here)

 

What are the benefits of AI in politics?

 

1. It can detect any corruption made in the system instantly.

2. With AI-enabled systems, every candidate will be analyzed by his/her past work experience, records, behaviour, leadership skills which can provide the audience with a better idea before voting for any candidate. ( Similar approach of AI-driven system in Digital marketing, grab here) 

3. AI can improve a system's productivity while analyzing the loopholes in the system.

4. If AI is implemented by independent organizations, we can remove all the fake news, false agendas within minutes, which would be highly beneficial considering the current scenario. (Related blog: Detection of Fake and False News by CNN and deep models)

5. AI has the potential to reduce the cost of any political campaigns.

 

Many countries celebrate advancements and growth in robotics, & computational environment, and automation through AI expecting that it will boost their economy. But a recent survey named European tech insights 2019 highlights different phenomena of European thinking which reveals that people do not want machines to perform most of the tasks which are being done by humans. 

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Data Source: European Tech Insights 2019

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These percentages also shed light on some other insights like one in every four European citizens would prefer AI to take all important decisions while running the country.

 

 

How AI is impacting the public sector?

 

Many private companies are using emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and cloud computing to improve their efficiency and productivity. There are many areas where artificial intelligence applications can be used in the public sector domain. Artificial intelligence services can make any Government faster and tailored.

 

 

Benefits of AI services in different public sectors

 

1. In the Education Sector

 

A public school teacher grading system is a small example of wide-ranging benefits where we can use an automatic grading system, using artificial intelligence, learning from previous answers, and getting better as it goes.

 

For example, you have heard about the famous education app “BYJU that is leveraging the AI for providing a better education interface.

 

Many universities and MOOCs platforms are using this technology to grade thousands of students and only some of them need a bit of human oversight. AI would help teachers to plan new ways of teaching for struggling students, create extra courses, read more, or simply get more time to spend on extracurricular activities.

 

Speaking of Education you can also check out our blog on Major applications of AI in the education sector here.

 

 

2. In the Health Sector

 

In our recent blog we have elaborated AI applications in healthcare like Support clinical decisions, Enhance primary care, Robotic surgeries, and Virtual nursing assistance, etc. 

 

The government recently launched an app named “Aarogya Setu” which leverages AI to trace all the close contacts or whoever has been in contact with a COVID19 positive patient. It notifies the user if they were or are in close contact with any COVID positive patient. You can learn more about this topic in our blog on how ai is being used in the fight of covid19?

 

 

3. In the Banking Sector 

 

AI can assist in many banking problems such as fraud detection, credit risk assessment, reduction of costs as well as risk management. Alongside these aspects, the sector is also leveraging AI for battling with frauds and hacks while simultaneously abiding with KYC and AML compliance regulations. Read more about how Artificial Intelligence is being leveraged by the banking sector.

 

Apart from these applications, public servants can leverage this technology to make welfare decisions, immigration decisions, fraud detection, new infrastructure projects, traffic control, citizens query solving platform, adjudicate bail applications, triage healthcare cases, etc. 

 

 

What should the Government do to improve its efficiency?

 

The government can decide which tasks will be handed to machines and which require human intervention but by employing AI applications we can save huge amounts of labour time to use them efficiently in other things. 

 

1. Using AI techniques, government agencies can become more efficient and provide public servants with more quality work to increase their job satisfaction level. 

2. We could save the time spent on carrying out repetitive tasks and use that in doing more creative and productive work.

3. Using AI techniques, the Government could let go of half of the staff and save taxpayers money or instead re-employ staff and upskill them for better functioning the government. 

4. The Government can offer more jobs in those areas which are much more rewarding and require lateral thinking, creativity, and empathy, skills that cannot be replaced by any artificial intelligence application. 

5. For instance, if any citizen wants more time from their government and requires extra coaching, guidance then the government can use these public servants.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, various countries have already begun experimenting with AI technologies in the public sector, many instances of which have been highlighted in the blog.

 

I am of the belief that there is a grave need to set limits to some extent to the employment of machines and develop a balance between the application of human power and machine power. (Read a combined view “Emotional Artificial intelligence”)

 

Machines absorb their knowledge through the data fed by humans, making human intelligence irreplaceable in the development of both machines and society. Follow our social media pages on  Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.