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Diagnoses of time are naturally a difficult undertaking. Nevertheless, it is probably an adequate observation that, in our present historical situation, the concern for the stability and future of democracy is particularly profound (cf. Rapoza 2019). The objects of this concern are, on the one hand, developments which seem to have only a limited or indirect connection with questions of technology, such as the current rise of right-wing populism and authoritarianism, especially in Europe and in the US, or "the resurgence of confrontational geopolitics" (Valladão 2018). On the other hand, we witness an increasingly prevalent discourse that negotiates the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI) as a potentially serious threat to democracy and democratic values, but which-with important exceptionsseems to be largely disconnected from the specific political conditions and developments of individual countries (cf. Webb 2019). Within this discourse, problematizing AI as jeopardizing democratic values and principles refers to different, but partly linked phenomena. Central reference points of these discussions are, for instance, the socio-political consequences of AI technologies for the future job market (catch phrase: "the disappearance of work"), the deployment of AI to manipulate visual information or to create 'fake news', the geo-political effects of autonomous weapon systems, or the application of AI methods through vast surveillance networks for producing sentencing guidelines and recidivism risk profiles in criminal justice systems, or for demographic and psychographic targeting of bodies for advertising, propaganda, and other forms of state intervention. 1 Prima facie, both forms of concern about the global state of democracy do not have much in common, but it is precisely for this reason that one needs to explore their deeper connections. For example, US President Donald Trump recently launched a so-called "American AI initiative", whose explicit goal is to promote the development of smart technologies in a way that puts American interests first.
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