Generative AI and Democratic Culture

Abstract The purported threats that the algorithmic creation, ordering, and manipulation of information in the digital sphere may pose to democracy have received considerable academic attention in recent years. In seeking to extend this discussion beyond the focus on formal and procedural aspects of democracy, this paper adopts a Deweyan conception of democracy and considers specifically the potential impact of generative-AI technologies (genAI) on democratic culture . This, we argue, reveals underexplored democratic challenges posed by such increasingly ubiquitous technologies. As a flourishing democratic culture is fundamentally dependent on its epistemic richness and diversity, this directs one to consider if and how the use of genAI technologies might undermine these aspects. Both the technical architecture of genAI and the specific ways they are used in ordinary life demonstrate their ability to intercede in or mediate epistemic participation in democratic culture and, importantly, their tendency to advance dominant epistemic norms and practices. As such, we discuss how genAI might further epistemic injustices that negatively impact democratic culture in still underappreciated but salient ways.