The United States Congress just got caught with their pants down. Part of this exposure was due to AI, specifically chatbots.
This is a situation that is only going to get worse (from the viewpoint of the politicians).
Nancy Pelosi is famous for saying "we have to pass the bill to find out what is in the bill." On most planets, this wouldn't make any sense but it is Washington, a world unto its own.
The GOP just tried to ram through a spending bill that will keep the government "open". This sounds like an admirable thing to do.
Unfortunately, we are not dealing with the altruism of elected leaders. Basically the bill was a pork filled piece of garbage.
What transpired is an example of how AI is changing government. More notably, it is altering how people can engage with the actions of political leaders.
Image generated by Grok
AI Is Already Changing Government
Most bills before the United States Congress end up being thousands of pages. Who is going to read all of that?
This was a major problem. Due to the time constraints, especially when parties wanted to push things, much was passed before anyone knew what was taking place.
AI is quickly fixing this issue.
One things computers excel at is speed. Large Language Models (LLM) got a lot of attention for the ability to answer questions and generate images. There is another use case rapidly forming.
With the spending bill, people were able to upload the document into chatbots, then query what was in this. Summaries could be presented along with isolated cases which most would find egregious.
It is amazing what could happen when 1,500 pages can be processed and analyzed in a minutes.
One part that raised some eyebrows was the raises Congress was giving itself. This was a 40% raise over what they are previously receiving. With so many people are struggling, this didn't sit well.
Of course, there was a lot more in there. The end result appears to be the bill being ditched.
Here is where AI stands out. We are dealing with something that processes information at a fast pace. It is truly an expansion of cognative ability.
Operating In The Shadows
Much of the issue around the world is the fact that so many are able to operate in the shadows. People simply do not know what is going on.
We saw how this was exposed in the most recent United States election.
There were clips on legacy media showing what a candidate said. This was followed up by commentary from the panels, blasting that person's views.
Of course, things were often taken out of context with some fancy editing. The counter to this was YouTube (mostly) where people were able to post the video from the legacy media along with the original video.
In other words, the misleading statements were quickly uncovered, often going viral.
The irony in this is 2024, a year when a large portion of the global population voted, was suppose to see deepfakes and extensive misdirection through the use of technology. It turns out, to a degree, the opposite happened.
This is what takes place when distribution networks are not controlled. Naturally, we still have issues as anyone know Google is not an open forum. That company will still ban (or demonetize) accounts if viewpoints it disagrees with are expressed.
Another ironic twist is X and Meta, along with other platforms, offer a counter to this. YouTube is often backed into a corner as their hypocrisy, inconsistency, and bullying is brought to light.
Privacy
A great deal is made about privacy. This is something that few take the time to truly think through.
It is easy to look at tracking and simply conclude we need more privacy. That, however, is only one piece of the puzzle.
The most interesting part is that privacy eradication is spreading to those in power. While there is still a lot done behind closed doors, we are seeing how technology is making it more difficult.
One major area is in the ability to control narratives. Much attention is given to how social media uitilizes psychological tools to "make decisions" for people.
What is actually emerging is the fact that we are quickly becoming aware of how institutions (and the people in them) used these tactics. It is not something new that social media invented. The mainstream media was using it for decades.
The speed which information travels is unprecedented. With AI, the ability to process it, then breaking it up into chunks for human consumption, is upon us.
Within an hour, a 1,500 page spending bill can be uploaded, broken up, and pieces blasted all over social media. Millions of people can see what is "hidden" deep in the bills, something that was basically impossible even a year ago.
Web 3.0
We are watching the process unfold.
There is still a lot done "in the dark". Transparency is still the exception as opposed to the rule.
Here is where we see the need for the continual push towards Web 3.0. Blockchain is a network that has transparency built in. It is hard to hide when data is posted for everyone to see (and utilize).
The AI systems that are being developed will this narrative completely. There was a practice where things would be hidden through the use of volume. For example, prosecutors are required to provide all evidence to the defense. Key pieces would be hidden by giving the defense truckloads of documents. The sheer volume made it impossible to go through everything.
This is no different than a multi-thousand page bill with billions in spending hidden deep within the document.
AI can process information rapidly. As more of this is posted to blockchain, the number of AI systems processing the data will only increase. This will alter how people in positions of power have to operate.
Politicians are starting to find out what is arising from this new technology. We can presume they will take steps to try and stop it. That is why decentralized systems are crucial. Laws limiting what the technology can be used for will lost their effectiveness if we have thousands of models operating on blockchains.