Authoritarian leaders and technology oligarchs are deploying AI systems to hollow out public institutions with an astonishing alacrity. AI boosters defend the technology’s role in dismantling our vital support structures by claiming that AI systems are just efficiency “tools” without substantive significance. But predictive and generative AI systems are not simply neutral conduits to help executives, bureaucrats, and elected leaders do what they were going to do anyway, only more cost-effectively. Even if predictive and generative AI systems are not directly used to eradicate these institutions, AI systems by their nature weaken the institutions to the point of enfeeblement. In short, AI systems are a death sentence for civic institutions, and we should treat them as such.

Source: The Guardian January 14, 2026 15:10 UTC