A.I. and Honesty in Politics

 

I didn’t watch the political debates last week. I have never been in doubt who I’m voting for, and I couldn’t bear to watch Pierre Poilievre posture and telll lies for that long. And then I watched the news report, and the first person quoted was PP, telling two lies. He accused Mark Carney of a population policy that is not a Liberal policy, and Carney has never espoused it.

We Have a Solution

Artificial Intelligence can be used to stop politicians from lying, simply by providing real-time fact checking. It might work something like this:

First, we need some discussion as to what constitutes a lie (We could use this in any case). There are several levels of untruth:

1. Outright Lie – stating as fact something that was demonstrably untrue.

“Liberal policy is to raise the population of Canada to 100 million by 2100”

2. Unsupported supposition, especially about opponent’s plans.

“If elected, Liberals will raise the population…”

3. Unsupported generalization

“Liberals want to raise the population to unsustainable levels”

4. Generalization

“Liberals have raised the population to unsustainable levels.”

5. Opinion

“Raising the population too fast is bad for the country”

6. Supported Opinion

“Raising the population too fast has stretched our social services.”

Or something like that. “Stretching the truth” probably fits in somewhere.

The Process

 Before the debate, contestants could submit a list of claims they intended to make. These would be run through whatever vetting process the debate organizers chose. Candidates could challenge ratings.

Then, during the debate, there would be a box on the TV screen that showed the pre-approved rating for each pronouncement.

If a candidate wanted to risk it, they could make any unvetted statement they wanted and take their chances on the real-time rating it got.

Removing the Spontaneity

Well, that’s rather the point, isn’t it? Politicians have already spent several weeks “spontaneously” making these talking points without any official pushback. The debate is the time to find out what’s really going on.

The Bottom Line

Unscrupulous politicians who habitually lie spoil the whole democratic process and bring all politicians into ill repute. Risking a public shaming on national television might tone them down a bit. Creating a commonly accepted definition of their techniques might help as well.