Politicians must not be so forward-thinking that they become disconnected with the lived reality of South Africa’s masses.
That was the message on Tuesday evening from Democracy Development Programme senior programmes officer Sphamandla Mhlongo, who was speaking at the AI, Social Bots, Algorithms & the 2024 General Elections: the Positive & Negative Impacts Community Dialogue.
The dialogue was held at Nelson Mandela University’s Ocean Sciences Campus and hosted by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) in partnership with The Herald and NMU’s Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (Canrad).
Mhlongo said with a milestone general election looming in 2024, SA political parties had so far failed to grasp the opportunity of using artificial intelligence (AI) and other social media mechanisms to meaningfully engage with citizens.
“It feels as though there is a stuckness in the way they are engaging with communities, especially young people, when compared to the way these devices are used elsewhere even in the developing world.
“The challenge is for political parties to innovate to catch the young people who are already there and ensure what you want to encourage reaches them.
“So social media can play a significant role in political communication but it has to be linked to the real lived situation of most of the people.”
He said AI was innately progressive but it could be severely negative if it was misused.
“It can lead to more silos as targeted advertising just encourages people to speak only to their own little circle instead of engaging in diverse discussion.
“Voices can be excluded or dimmed. So constant critique is needed.”
Referring to the July 2021 riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and the voice message that allegedly played a role in galvanising the violence, he said too often politicians ignored the plight of struggling communities and the real causes for social upheaval.
“So I would urge our politicians to think more about how can we use AI to move South Africa forward.
“We must not be so forward in our thinking that we disconnect with lived realities.”
NMU political science lecturer Dr Ongama Mtimka said the link between social media and the real world needed to be explored.
“The comfort for the ANC is they are still worlds apart. But for how long?
“If South Africa was Twitter, [EFF leader Julius] Malema would be president.”
He said communication defined humankind and a love letter dispatched through the post office and received several days later was now an instant GIF (graphic interchange format).
“But we have to ask how much do we miss each other on these multiple platforms.
“Political science is about thinking and creativity but ChatGPT can replicate that, even if it is only with mechanistic texts.
“There are opportunities and threats to AI and social media — but citizens can communicate their displeasures much more than what reporters can sometimes give us, and that is a positive.”
Harvard technology and human rights fellow Phumzile van Damme applauded the organisers of the dialogue.
“It shows me that the IEC is taking this matter seriously and I encourage academia with their research into the issues and the media, as under-resourced as they often area, to continue with their excellent work.
“I would like to encourage people to think twice about the information they receive.”
IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo sketched the rise of AI from its genesis in the 1950s.
He said a social bot was a software agent that communicated autonomously on social media.
“We have good ones of course at the IEC like the bot that fields calls from citizens who want to know if they are registered and if so where they must vote.
The bot efficiently checks and delivers the information.
“But there are also deep fakes which can undermine personalised advertising.
“This upcoming election is going to be not so much in community halls and very much on social media so these mechanisms good and bad are going to be at the centre of things.”
Mamabolo said the IEC had put a number of measures in place to ensure AI and social bots did not impede upon the legitimacy of the elections.
“These measures include that all political parties have been workshopped on the concept of artificial intelligence and how it can be used for political work, political advertising and the do’s and don’ts.”
He said the commission had signed a framework of understanding with media platforms such as Meta, TikTok and Google to work with them to strengthen moderation of fake news and disinformation during elections.
This was, however, not foolproof, as things might slip through.
“They have implemented complaint mechanisms for people to flag fake news on social media platforms.”
The Herald and Weekend Post editor and SA National Editors' Forum Eastern Cape convener Rochelle de Kock said with predictions of a landmark shift to coalition government, political parties would be ramping up their rhetoric.
“Bots are planted to silence certain voices so we need to ensure we pick up on false messaging, deep fakes and disinformation.”
HeraldLIVE
Social media, AI to play key role in 2024 election
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Senior Reporter
Image: WERNER HILLS
Politicians must not be so forward-thinking that they become disconnected with the lived reality of South Africa’s masses.
That was the message on Tuesday evening from Democracy Development Programme senior programmes officer Sphamandla Mhlongo, who was speaking at the AI, Social Bots, Algorithms & the 2024 General Elections: the Positive & Negative Impacts Community Dialogue.
The dialogue was held at Nelson Mandela University’s Ocean Sciences Campus and hosted by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) in partnership with The Herald and NMU’s Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (Canrad).
Mhlongo said with a milestone general election looming in 2024, SA political parties had so far failed to grasp the opportunity of using artificial intelligence (AI) and other social media mechanisms to meaningfully engage with citizens.
“It feels as though there is a stuckness in the way they are engaging with communities, especially young people, when compared to the way these devices are used elsewhere even in the developing world.
“The challenge is for political parties to innovate to catch the young people who are already there and ensure what you want to encourage reaches them.
“So social media can play a significant role in political communication but it has to be linked to the real lived situation of most of the people.”
He said AI was innately progressive but it could be severely negative if it was misused.
“It can lead to more silos as targeted advertising just encourages people to speak only to their own little circle instead of engaging in diverse discussion.
“Voices can be excluded or dimmed. So constant critique is needed.”
Referring to the July 2021 riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and the voice message that allegedly played a role in galvanising the violence, he said too often politicians ignored the plight of struggling communities and the real causes for social upheaval.
“So I would urge our politicians to think more about how can we use AI to move South Africa forward.
“We must not be so forward in our thinking that we disconnect with lived realities.”
NMU political science lecturer Dr Ongama Mtimka said the link between social media and the real world needed to be explored.
“The comfort for the ANC is they are still worlds apart. But for how long?
“If South Africa was Twitter, [EFF leader Julius] Malema would be president.”
He said communication defined humankind and a love letter dispatched through the post office and received several days later was now an instant GIF (graphic interchange format).
“But we have to ask how much do we miss each other on these multiple platforms.
“Political science is about thinking and creativity but ChatGPT can replicate that, even if it is only with mechanistic texts.
“There are opportunities and threats to AI and social media — but citizens can communicate their displeasures much more than what reporters can sometimes give us, and that is a positive.”
Harvard technology and human rights fellow Phumzile van Damme applauded the organisers of the dialogue.
“It shows me that the IEC is taking this matter seriously and I encourage academia with their research into the issues and the media, as under-resourced as they often area, to continue with their excellent work.
“I would like to encourage people to think twice about the information they receive.”
IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo sketched the rise of AI from its genesis in the 1950s.
He said a social bot was a software agent that communicated autonomously on social media.
“We have good ones of course at the IEC like the bot that fields calls from citizens who want to know if they are registered and if so where they must vote.
The bot efficiently checks and delivers the information.
“But there are also deep fakes which can undermine personalised advertising.
“This upcoming election is going to be not so much in community halls and very much on social media so these mechanisms good and bad are going to be at the centre of things.”
Mamabolo said the IEC had put a number of measures in place to ensure AI and social bots did not impede upon the legitimacy of the elections.
“These measures include that all political parties have been workshopped on the concept of artificial intelligence and how it can be used for political work, political advertising and the do’s and don’ts.”
He said the commission had signed a framework of understanding with media platforms such as Meta, TikTok and Google to work with them to strengthen moderation of fake news and disinformation during elections.
This was, however, not foolproof, as things might slip through.
“They have implemented complaint mechanisms for people to flag fake news on social media platforms.”
The Herald and Weekend Post editor and SA National Editors' Forum Eastern Cape convener Rochelle de Kock said with predictions of a landmark shift to coalition government, political parties would be ramping up their rhetoric.
“Bots are planted to silence certain voices so we need to ensure we pick up on false messaging, deep fakes and disinformation.”
HeraldLIVE
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