AI Summit Day 1: Global Leaders Call for Privacy and Security Safeguards To Protect Democracy

The panel, moderated by Guillaume Poupard, highlighted mounting concerns about AI's impact on democratic institutions and personal privacy.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs opened with stark warnings about AI's dual nature in democratic processes, citing recent examples of election interference. "We have cases in Romania and Slovakia where AI is being used to interfere in elections," he noted, describing how Latvia has enacted legislation requiring AI marking in political campaigns and criminalizing malicious use of deepfakes in electoral processes.

Signal President Meredith Whittaker delivered one of the panel's most powerful messages about privacy risks, using Microsoft's "Recall" feature as an example of how AI's data hunger can compromise security. "There is no such thing as a backdoor that only the good guys can access," she warned, citing the recent "Salt Typhoon" hack that compromised millions of US residents' telecommunications data.

Marie-Laure Denis, President of France's Privacy Authority (CNIL), emphasized that privacy protection must be a prerequisite for AI development. She outlined key risks including unauthorized data processing, model bias, and deepfake exploitation, noting that "Without guarantees, there can be no trust. And without trust, there can be no sustainable development of AI."

Digital Rights Foundation founder Nighat Dad brought a crucial Global South perspective, challenging the panel to consider AI's impact beyond Western democracies. "We cannot progress if we are not including diverse voices," she argued, highlighting how AI tools often fail to address localized needs in countries like Pakistan, particularly regarding gender-based violence.

OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann emphasized the urgent need for coordinated international governance, revealing that the OECD now tracks over 1,000 different AI policy approaches across 70 jurisdictions. "We desperately need more and better and more effective international cooperation when it comes to AI," he stressed.

Key takeaways from the discussion included:

1. The dual nature of AI in democracy - while it can help protect democratic institutions, it can also be weaponized to undermine them
2. The critical importance of privacy-by-design in AI development
3. The need for inclusive governance that considers perspectives beyond the Global North
4. The dangers of backdoors in security systems
5. The necessity for coordinated international standards while respecting local contexts

The panel notably excluded major tech companies, leading to discussion about their role in protecting democracy. Whittaker argued that the "bigger is better" AI paradigm is itself a product of concentrated tech power, suggesting that "we need to focus on more novel, more innovative, smaller approaches to AI that do not concentrate power."

The discussion concluded with agreement that while AI poses significant risks to democracy and privacy, solutions are possible through international cooperation, inclusive governance, and careful attention to privacy protections. However, as Dad emphasized, these solutions must be truly global: "We cannot take this progress forward when we are not including diverse voices. Democracies around the world have different shapes and forms."