The roots of the word "scapegoat" go back to biblical times, when the sins of the people were ritually bestowed upon an actual goat, which was then sent away to remove these sins from the community. This apt analogy can be applied to the way advanced technologies are now blamed for seemingly every societal ill. But just as goats weren't responsible for the sins of the ancients, neither is technology to blame for ours.
Consider three of the most common allegations: that technology is spreading misinformation, polarizing society, and undermining electoral trust. A sampling of typically alarmist headlines paints a dire picture, with the New York Times warning of "Elections and Disinformation Colliding Like Never Before in 2024" and Scientific American claiming "How AI Bots Could Sabotage 2024 Elections around the World."
Yet, when one compares the impact of fringe internet theories to widely held, but false, mainstream beliefs, it becomes clear that governments and traditional media have been a much bigger source of misinformation than the internet. The number of people who believed claims like the Pizzagate child-abuse accusations or that the Sandy Hook shootings were staged has always been a tiny fraction of those who believed the Steele dossier was highly credible or that the Wuhan lab leak theory was a racist conspiracy.
Blaming technology for societal polarization is another example of convenient blame-shifting. America is deeply divided over real issues, and new technologies can merely highlight and amplify these divisions, not cause them. Similarly, the idea that technology is undermining election integrity is yet another long-standing myth. Citizen distrust in the 2020 election stemmed overwhelmingly from non-technology issues, such as close elections, mail-in ballots, and constant complaints by former President Trump.
Fears of AI's impact on the 2024 election should be seen as a case of speculative scapegoating. Thus far, widespread claims that AI, algorithms, deepfakes, and unchecked misinformation will manipulate voters and distort election results have had little basis in reality. The polarizing trials of President Trump, as well as the now ubiquitous concerns about President Biden's age, have nothing to do with technology. Neither do the sharp policy and personality differences between the two candidates.
Americans know Joe Biden and Donald Trump about as well as any two candidates can be known. Misinformation fueled by AI, social media, and the internet is unlikely to change this, and is much less influential than many other electoral factors, especially those that voters can assess with their own eyes and ears.
The convenience of blaming new technology that empowers the "unwashed masses" is evident. It's much easier for politicians and mainstream news organizations to point fingers at the internet than to acknowledge their own actions as the more significant source of misinformation, polarization, and electoral distrust. As the June 27 presidential debate made clear, events in the real world vastly outweigh even the most potent of technologies.
