The role of AI in politics: The psychology of trust in AI-assisted policies and the leaders that use them.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising society, and as the sophistication of AI increases, so does the complexity of the tasks and contexts that machines are being used.
One such context is the proposed use of AI in policymaking. Drawing on insights from psychology, political science, and AI ethics, my proposed research will help understand how the use of AI will influence trust in policies and political leaders, particularly in policy dilemmas involving utilitarian trade-offs. My work will help us understand attitudes towards AI-assisted policies (RQ1); how trust in AI-mediated policies depends on the
recommendations being made (RQ2); and how people trust political leaders who use AI to draft policies (RQ3). To answer these research questions, I take a novel mixed-method approach that draws on both qualitative interviews and quantitative experimental studies.
Studies include interviews and experiments about the potential of AI to assist in policies, in person-behavioural tasks where participants believe they will be personally affected, and experiments looking at how people judge leaders who use AI-assisted tools. My project is poised to significantly advance the literature on the intersection of AI and trust in the understudied but critically important context of political decision-making. The use of generative AI could transform policymaking, and this project offers much-needed insights into the consequences of the public’s attitudes towards this.