Policy Brief
This report explores the potential of bridging and discusses some of the most common objections, addressing questions around legitimacy and practicality.
Algorithmic ranking and recommendation systems determine what kinds of behaviors are rewarded by digital platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok by choosing what content to show to users. Because these platforms dominate our attention economy, and because attention can be transformed into money and power, platform recommendations therefore provide a reward structure for society at large.
Platforms currently reward divisive behavior with attention due to the interactions between engagement-based ranking and human psychology. This helps determine the kinds of politicians, journalists, entertainers, and others who can succeed in their respective social arenas, resulting in significant impacts on the quality of our decision-making, our capacity to cooperate, the likelihood of violent conflict, and the robustness of democracy.
We can potentially mitigate this ‘centrifugal’ force toward division by deploying ranking systems that do the opposite—that provide a countervailing ‘centripetal’ or bridging force.
Bridging-based ranking rewards behavior that bridges divides. For example, imagine if Facebook rewarded content that led to positive interactions across diverse audiences, including around divisive topics. How might that change what people, posts, pages, and groups are successful?
This report explores the potential of bridging and discusses some of the most common objections, addressing questions around legitimacy and practicality. It contrasts bridging with some of the most discussed approaches for reforming ranking: reverse-chronological feeds, ‘middleware’, and ‘choose your own ranking system’. (Unfortunately, without introducing bridging, all of these proposed reforms still reward those who seek to divide.) Finally, this report explores early examples where bridging systems are already being tried with some success.
Summary of Next Steps
We can and should rapidly build capacity to develop, evaluate, and deploy bridging-based ranking systems.
Bridging-based ranking alone is not a silver bullet—we need other reforms to address the many challenges of platform-enabled connectivity. But bridging would help address one of the most significant risks—that of being pushed past a “division threshold” beyond which democracy can no longer function.
Open Access Resource
This paper aims to provide a roadmap for governing AI. In contrast to the reigning paradigms, we argue that AI governance should be not merely a reactive, punitive, status-quo-defending enterprise, but rather the expression of an expansive, proactive vision for technology—to advance human flourishing.
Video
The Ash Center hosted an online book talk with author Marietje Schaake and discussant Bruce Schneier on Schaake’s latest work, The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley. The discussion was moderated by Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation.
Additional Resource
The year 2024 was dubbed “the largest election year in global history” with half the world’s population voting in national elections. Earlier this year, we hosted an event on AI and the 2024 Elections where scholars spoke about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on the election cycle– from misinformation to threats on election infrastructure. This webinar offered a reflection and exploration of the impacts of technology on the 2024 election landscape.
Commentary
Drawing from her experience deploying an AI-powered chatbot to share accurate voting information during Venezuela’s recent election, Isabella Picón explains how AI technologies can enhance electoral participation and support pro-democracy movements.
Commentary
Freddy Guevara offers a fundamental playbook for social activists on how to augment advocacy efforts with artificial intelligence technologies
Feature
Building effective channels for the interaction between AI developers and activist communities is critical for innovating social mobilization and strengthening civil society.
