AI Rises as Democracy Falls

AI Rises as Democracy Falls

November 2025

Artificial Intelligence is rising while democracy is declining. The question is: is there a correlation? Across the globe, democracy is eroding and authoritarianism is gaining ground. Meanwhile, leaders pay lip service to the ideals of a “human-centric society” and “shared prosperity.”

The crucial question is whether AI will strengthen democracy—or undermine it. What we see today is that AI provides the very tools that enable authoritarian control. Information about citizens is being concentrated in fewer hands, allowing people to be traced, profiled, and monitored. At the same time, this technology is controlled mainly by elites who have already subordinated political institutions to their economic power.

We are living in Society 4.0, a stage driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)—a term describing the rapid technological advancement of the 21st century, characterized by artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, and the Internet of Things (Schwab, 2016). In this phase, humans are increasingly subjected to technology rather than empowered by it.

The world seems to be moving closer to scenarios once described by the Rockefeller Foundation (2010): Hack Attack—an unstable world of weak governments—and Lock Step—a world of top-down control following a global pandemic. These visions no longer feel speculative; they feel familiar.

Yet another path is emerging: Society 5.0, a human-centric society founded on a new social contract (Goede, 2022). This new framework aims to redefine the relationships between citizens and the state, between citizens themselves, between citizens and technology, and between citizens and nature.

Such a contract, however, remains abstract. The pressing question is: how will it come into being, and how will it be upheld? After all, we already have human rights—and that has not stopped them from being violated.

If rights alone don’t protect us, what will?

Miguel Goede

References

Goede, M. (2022). Society 5.0 is a new social contract. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359250374_Society_50_is_a_new_social_contract

Rockefeller Foundation. (2010). Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development. Rockefeller Foundation.

Schwab, K. (2016). The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum.