AI surveillance is threatening democracy---empirics from 176 countries prove

Several countries are currently using AI surveillance technologies. These tools are transforming international relations between states as they are transforming international security but also relations inside the state between the governor and governed. These advanced surveillance technologies are facilitating the transition from democratic to authoritarian states. AI and how it’s used by different actors in international society and societies leads us to the AI surveillance as a new indicator enabling to measure democracy and to identify authoritarian and democratic countries. In a sense, “The index compiles empirical data on AI surveillance use for 176 countries around the world” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 2021). These AI surveillance tools offer several advantages to states to ensure security through social control and the surveillance of citizens and non-nationals including diplomats and representatives of other states in the state’s territory. According to the AI Global Surveillance (AIGS) Index, “At least seventy-five out of 176 countries globally are actively using AI technologies for surveillance purposes. China is a major driver of AI surveillance worldwide exporting these advanced technologies and its authority’s system to sixty-three countries” (Kane 2017). US companies are also active in this space in 32 countries. A growing number of states are deploying advanced AI surveillance tools from East and the West such as France, Germany, and Israel. Japan is also playing important roles in proliferating this technology. That means that in AI era, democracy needs to be revised considering the new evolution in AI surveillance and how they are used by democratic and authoritarian countries and how these tools are creating a new tyranny, a technological dictatorship. In a sense, the AIGS Index shows that 51% of advanced democracies deploy AI surveillance systems, and 37% of closed autocratic states, 41% of electoral autocratic/competitive autocratic states, and 41% of electoral democracies/illiberal democracies deploy AI surveillance technology (Feldstein 2019) (Fig. 1).