When is AI democratic? Artificial intelligence and democratic empowerment

While many debates frequently emphasize the threats artificial intelligence poses to democratic life, scholars are increasingly examining the role AI may play in supporting democracies. However, little attention has been given to a crucial question: how and under what conditions AI can be considered democratic, not only in its design but also in its societal outcomes. I argue that AI is democratic when it is democratically empowering, meaning it contributes to redistributing power and creating symmetrical power relations rather than centralizing them. This argument is rooted in the framework of participatory democracy, which prioritizes the active involvement of the citizenry and the redistribution of power across all social spheres. Drawing on participatory democracy, Foucauldian and Actor-Network Theory perspectives, the paper identifies three essential features of power that are needed for theorizing democratic AI: the pervasiveness of power relations in everyday life, the agency of technological artifacts understood as “actants”, and the way power structures relations that can be more or less symmetrical. To assess whether and how AI may be deemed democratic, the paper suggests investigating how AI shapes power dynamics in two dimensions: AI making (development, design, political economy, governance, and imaginaries) and AI action (how AI operates in fields like education, healthcare, information, and politics). This approach helps to take into account the complexity and ambiguity of power dynamics, critically examining whether and how AI contribute to the redistribution of power across different domains. Ultimately, this theoretical framework provides a roadmap for developers and policymakers interested in promoting a more democratic AI.