AI Suffrage: A four-country survey on the acceptance of an automated voting system

Abstract

Governments have begun to employ technological systems that use massive amounts of data and artificial intelligence (AI) in the domains of law enforcement, public health, or social welfare. In some areas, shifts in public opinion increasingly favor technology-aided public decision-making. This development presents an opportunity to explore novel approaches to how technology could be used to reinvigorate democratic governance and how the public perceives such changes. The study therefore posits a hypothetical AI voting system that mediates political decision-making between citizens and the state. We conducted a four-country online survey (N=6043) in Greece, Singapore, Switzerland, and the US to find out what factors affect the public’s acceptance of such a system. The data show that Singaporeans are most likely and Greeks least likely to accept the system. Considerations of the technology’s utility have a large effect on acceptance rates across cultures whereas attitudes towards political norms and political performance have partial effects.