CONCEPT
Democracy Movements in Authoritarian Contexts
The specific governance crisis documented at Fung's December 2024 Ash Center workshop: democracy movements have experienced historic decline in capacity to challenge autocratic governments, due in part to AI's asymmetric concentration of surveillance, censorship, and propaganda capabilities in state actors.
The relationship between AI and democracy movements in authoritarian contexts exhibits a specific asymmetric dynamic that Fung's December 2024 Ash Center workshop documented systematically. AI provides autocratic governments with unprecedented capabilities for surveillance, censorship, and propaganda — capabilities they are deploying faster than democracy movements can adapt defenses. The relatively slow adoption of AI tools by democracy movements may be widening the gulf between these movements and their adversaries. The dynamic is not unique to authoritarian contexts (AI also concentrates power asymmetrically in democratic settings) but is particularly acute there because state actors face fewer constraints on surveillance and information control.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The workshop's framing starts from an empirical claim: democracy movements worldwide have experienced significant decline in their ability to challenge autocratic governments over the past decade. The decline has multiple causes (economic, political, demographic), but the changing technology landscape is among