The future denied to us: artificial intelligence as a denial of democratic and citizenship ideals

a inteligência artificial como negação dos ideários de democracia e cidadania

Abstract

Social media, driven by profit, demands a continuous expansion of its user base, which must be active in both producing and consuming content, directed at them according to their preferences, captured by AI operated algorithmically, creating consumption niches. The creation of these “bubbles” simplifies the metrics used for content targeting and accelerates the erosion of public debate, forming an industrial logic of content production, characterized by the encouragement of high consumption, the reduction of discursive complexity, and polarizations. This research aims to investigate how the use of AI in content targeting impacts the construction of a future based on democratic ideals and effective citizenship. It assumes an exploratory and descriptive nature, adopting bibliographic research as a method of procedure; as an approach method, the deductive method is used to identify how the creation of artificial content “bubbles” by AI affects the fundamentality of the democratic principle and effective citizenship.