Artificial Intelligence, Disinformation, Lethal Violence, and the Limits of Criminal Justice

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on Policing and Criminalisation

Abstract

The Internet is not what it once was. Early dreams of the Internet as a neutral and affordable tool for freedom of expression, increased civic participation, and democratisation, have given way to disinformation, deepfakes, hate speech, and echo chambers that exclude, vilify, or denounce the views of all who ask questions or dare suggest a scientific or human rights-based approach. The velocity of the latest AI developments sparks concerns about the ways in which the affordances of the digital ecosystem curate and promote specific flows of information to incentivise discord, to deride or obfuscate diverse views, and to forestall avenues for the scientific verification of facts.

This paper examines cases of lethal violence that turn on dis/misinformation. Tracing the social, cultural, and technological characteristics that permit criminogenic echo chambers, the paper identifies risks to the effective functioning of rule of law institutions. The paper concludes with suggestions for legal and public policy initiatives in prevention and response. In so doing, the paper highlights the need to avoid reductive or determinist assumptions that position technology as the singular or inexorable problem and, instead, do the much more difficult work of coming to grips with the issues of social division and structural violence that manifest as rhetorical and physical harm in both the online and offline worlds.

Author

• Wendy O'Brien, Adjunct Associate Professor, Deakin University