Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41034566›Full record

ReviewNature human behaviour2025

The impact of advanced AI systems on democracy.

Christopher Summerfield, Lisa P Argyle, Michiel Bakker, Teddy Collins, Esin Durmus, Tyna Eloundou, Iason Gabriel, Deep Ganguli, Kobi Hackenburg, Gillian K Hadfield and 13 more

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Nature human behaviour, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Moral stereotyping in large language models.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  2. TechnologicalNature. Mental health · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

23 authors.

Christopher SummerfieldDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. christopher.summerfield@psy.ox.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2941-2653
Lisa P ArgyleDepartment of Political Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3109-2537
Michiel BakkerGoogle DeepMind, London, UK.
Teddy CollinsCollective Intelligence Project, Wilmington, DE, USA.
Esin DurmusAnthropic, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Tyna EloundouOpenAI, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Iason GabrielGoogle DeepMind, London, UK.
Deep GanguliAnthropic, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Kobi HackenburgUK AI Security Institute, London, UK.
Gillian K HadfieldFaculty of Law, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Luke HewittStanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford, CA, USA.
Saffron HuangCollective Intelligence Project, Wilmington, DE, USA.
Hélène LandemoreDepartment of Political Science, Yale University, Yale, NH, USA.
Nahema MarchalGoogle DeepMind, London, UK.
Aviv OvadyaAI & Democracy Foundation, Covina, CA, USA.
Ariel ProcacciaSchool of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Allston, MA, USA.
Mathias RisseHarvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Bruce SchneierHarvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Elizabeth SegerDemos, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8942-4130
Divya SiddarthCollective Intelligence Project, Wilmington, DE, USA.
Henrik Skaug SætraDepartment of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7558-6451
Michael Henry TesslerGoogle DeepMind, London, UK.
Matthew BotvinickGoogle DeepMind, London, UK. botvinick@google.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7758-6896

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of generating humanlike text and multimodal content are now widely available. Here we ask what impact this will have on the democratic process. We consider the consequences of AI for citizens' ability to make educated and competent choices about political representatives and issues (epistemic impacts). We explore how AI might be used to destabilize or support the mechanisms, including elections, by which democracy is implemented (material impacts). Finally, we discuss whether AI will strengthen or weaken the principles on which democracy is based (foundational impacts). The arrival of new AI systems clearly poses substantial challenges for democracy. However, we argue that AI systems also offer new opportunities to educate and learn from citizens, strengthen public discourse, help people to find common ground, and reimagine how democracies might work better.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceDemocracyPoliticsHumans

Identifiers

PMID41034566

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.