AI Arms Race: How Generative AI is Reshaping Democracy and Governance

AI’s Role in the 21st Century’s Most Critical Arms Race

The global competition for AI supremacy between the U.S. and China dominates political discourse, with debates centering on chip exports, model advancements, and military applications. However, security experts warn that the most consequential AI-driven conflict is already underway—not between superpowers, but across democratic institutions, academia, and digital ecosystems. In this arms race, AI is the weapon of choice, and its combatants are distributed across dozens of domains, from courtrooms to social media.

AI’s Proliferation Across Critical Sectors

Generative AI is rapidly transforming how institutions operate, often with unintended consequences:

• Academic Publishing: Journals are inundated with AI-generated submissions, forcing publishers to deploy AI-driven review tools to manage the volume.
• Legal Systems: Brazil’s courts now use AI to triage cases, but this has led to a surge in AI-assisted filings, overwhelming the system.
• Open-Source Software: Developers face an influx of bot-generated code contributions, complicating maintenance and security vetting.
• Media & Public Discourse: Newspapers, social media, and music platforms grapple with AI-generated content, while investigative journalism and hiring processes are disrupted by synthetic submissions.

These scenarios reflect an adversarial dynamic—each actor leverages AI to gain an edge, forcing competitors to adopt the same technology to keep pace. The result is a self-perpetuating cycle where AI adoption becomes a necessity rather than a choice.

The Democratic Dilemma: AI in Governance and Civic Engagement

One of the most pressing concerns is AI’s impact on democratic governance. Historically, public engagement with government relied on human interaction—constituents writing letters, submitting comments, or attending town halls. Today, AI is reshaping these interactions at scale:

• Regulatory Comment Flooding: In 2017, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) faced millions of fraudulent comments during a net neutrality debate, orchestrated by broadband providers and countered by a college student using automated tools. Nearly a decade later, AI has made such tactics far more sophisticated.
• Government AI Adoption: U.S. congressional staff now use AI to streamline constituent correspondence, while politicians employ AI for fundraising and voter outreach. By 2025, an estimated 20% of public submissions to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were AI-assisted.
• The Personalization Paradox: AI enables mass advocacy campaigns to generate highly personalized, contextually relevant comments, making it harder for agencies to dismiss them. However, this also pressures institutions to adopt AI for processing submissions, creating a feedback loop where human voices risk being drowned out.

Who Benefits? The Corporate AI Monopoly

While these arms races play out, U.S. Big Tech corporations are the clear beneficiaries. The global economy has rapidly reoriented around AI, with trillions of dollars flowing into chip manufacturing, data centers, and "frontier" AI models. Meanwhile, tech lobbying has become so influential that it now shapes government policy rather than the other way around.

The concentration of power is stark:

• A handful of corporations control AI infrastructure, from hardware (e.g., NVIDIA chips) to software (e.g., OpenAI, Google, Meta).
• These firms profit from the arms race dynamic itself, regardless of which side gains a temporary advantage.

Mitigating the Risks: Regulation and Resistance

Despite the challenges, democracies are pushing back against AI-driven centralization:

• Antitrust Enforcement: Regulators in the EU and U.S. are cracking down on Big Tech monopolies to curb their influence.
• Human Rights Protections: Initiatives like the UN’s AI governance frameworks aim to safeguard democratic values.
• Public AI Alternatives: Projects like Apertus, a fully open and transparent multilingual language model, offer alternatives to corporate-controlled AI.

For security professionals and policymakers, the path forward requires a dual strategy:

1. Leverage AI Defensively: Use AI tools to enhance civic engagement, detect synthetic content, and improve institutional responsiveness.
2. Counter AI Centralization: Support regulatory efforts, open-source alternatives, and transparency initiatives to prevent corporate monopolies from dominating AI’s future.

Conclusion: A Call to Action

The AI arms race is not a futuristic threat—it is already reshaping democracy, governance, and public discourse. While AI offers tools to amplify marginalized voices, it also risks entrenching corporate power and undermining trust in institutions. The challenge for security experts, policymakers, and citizens alike is to harness AI’s potential while resisting its exploitation by monopolistic forces. The future of democracy may depend on it.

This article is based on insights from Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders’ book, Rewiring Democracy.