Machines and Influence

Policymakers face a broader challenge of how to view AI capabilities today and where does society stand in terms of those capabilities. This paper surveys AI capabilities and tackles this very issue, exploring it in context of political security in digital societies. We introduce a Matrix of Machine Influence to frame and navigate the adversarial applications of AI, and further extend the ideas of Information Management to better understand contemporary AI systems deployment as part of a complex information system. Providing a comprehensive review of man-machine interactions in our networked society and political systems, we suggest that better regulation and management of information systems can more optimally offset the risks of AI and utilise the emerging capabilities which these systems have to offer to policymakers and political institutions across the world. Hopefully this long essay will actuate further debates and discussions over these ideas, and prove to be a useful contribution towards governing the future of AI.