250 years ago, the nation we now know as the United States of America came to be. Patriots risked their lives to organize and structure a democracy, a bold governance experiment built on the idea that power should be in the hands of the people – not a monarchy, dictatorship, or oligarchy. Over time, this experiment has evolved into one of the most influential and impactful democratic governance systems in human history.
To quote legendary Senator John McCain, “The strength of our nation lies not in our military might or economic power, but in the ideals of freedom, democracy, and human dignity.”
Our democracy has come under attack in various forms – from the invasion of 1812 to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of us alive today can recall the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that preceded the Global War on Terror – our nation’s longest war – to protect national security, support our allies, and defend the democratic values targeted by extremist ideologies.
However, the threats facing our democracy today are far more insidious. They aren’t accompanied by loud booms and flames and crumbling buildings. We could quickly recognize such aggressive acts of intrusion and rapidly mobilize against them. But contemporary threats include mechanisms that many of us can’t quickly recognize, much less understand. These threats come through screens and are disseminated via algorithms. Instead of destroying buildings, they manipulate beliefs in a way that influences very real actions and are made possible courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI).
Hailed by many as an efficiency-focused automator, AI presents disruption potential across more than just the workforce. Its capabilities to produce and distribute manipulated information, such as deepfakes and disinformation, at scales that greatly exceed human ability, have the potential to radically reshape how our democracy functions.
For example, researchers at Brookings found that AI-generated emails sent to legislators were almost as effective at generating responses as messages written by concerned citizens. If elected officials do not reliably distinguish authentic constituent concerns from AI-generated influence campaigns, how can they accurately assess public sentiment or shape policy in ways that align with the voting public of whom they were elected to represent? The methods of civic engagement that have been essential components to our democratic processes are currently being undermined by unethical uses of AI.
Additionally, the extensive proliferation of manipulated information has the potential to alter how citizens view public institutions and our governance processes. In 2025, the average American spent over two hours a day consuming content on social media – much of which includes exposure to manipulated information. According to MIT, false information spreads online six times faster than truthful and accurate content, which has the potential to turn a simple spark of manipulated information into a roaring wildfire.
Internet users are exposed to immense amounts of manipulated information every day – all of which has impacts on the individual and collective cognitive domain. The result of encountering this level of false and weaponized slog online has the potential to reduce media consumption and promote a general attitude of apathy regarding civic engagement. Why would someone invest the time and effort into researching the truth if trust is so diluted by manipulated information?
In the book The Origins of Totalitarianism, philosopher Hannah Arendt cautioned, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… no longer exists.”
AI doesn’t just create convincing fake content – it simultaneously creates plausible deniability for the very existence of authentic content. This phenomenon, often referred to as the “liar’s dividend,” allows people to dismiss legitimate evidence as manipulated information. In an AI-enabled information environment, the concept of truth itself becomes highly contested.
In a governance system that depends on the masses to cast their vote, engage in civic action, and hold public institutions accountable, the erosion of truth is not just a culture or morality problem – it’s a national security challenge.
Prior to the emergence of the Internet, social media, and now, AI, American society had established and regulated media outlets that provided vetted content from reputable sources that passed through a series of editorial staff members before any distribution. Today, bad actors, foreign adversaries, and terrorist groups can quickly (and for little to no cost) generate manipulated information that is then broadcast out to the American public.
Thanks to social media, the state of the digital commons thrives on outrageous, sensationalized, inaccurate or radically embellished content. Truthful, grounded content that provides factual information in a balanced manner doesn’t get clicks, and quickly dissipates on the algorithm. Manipulated information maintains all the prime real estate in a clickbait ecosystem.
Potential outcomes of American citizens encountering manipulated content online are:
- They will fall for it and take action on false narratives.
- They lose trust in governance and public institutions, and will disengage from the democratic process itself.
- They will become more polarized and partisan, ignoring any information that comes from outside their political party.
- They will develop cognitive resilience, be resistant to manipulated information, and succeed in navigating the modern information environment in a responsible, ethical manner.
When democratic processes were established, the Founding Fathers had no concept of the complexity and congestion that would emerge in the modern information environment. Foreign adversaries utilizing AI to create deep fakes that mislead and misinform American voters was something far from the realities of 1776. While propaganda isn’t anything new, AI opened Pandora’s Box to manipulate information – greatly accelerating the speed and scale at which weaponized narratives can be used to erode our rights and freedoms.
These attacks don’t occur as a result of a missile launch or ground invasion; instead, they are insidious – like a fog rolling in across the harbor – impossible to blockade, not causing any initial physical damage, however, their impacts can be disabling on many fronts. Manipulative information is pummeling our nation, empowered by AI. There’s no “off” switch in terms of technological capabilities – we can’t simply “make it stop.”
Preserving democracy in the age of AI will require more than technological innovation – it calls for a new type of cyber-meets-cognitive resilience. The American public must recognize the threat level of manipulated information, actively invest in strengthening defenses, deploy effective methods of authenticating information, and equip citizens to successfully navigate a highly contested information environment.
More than two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; and whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
In the age of AI, those words feel less like a historical observation and more like an imperative. The future of American democracy may not be determined solely in courtrooms, on battlefields, or at the ballot box; instead, the ability of U.S. citizens to identify truth in a sea of manipulated information is paramount.
The next battlefield may not be defined by geography, but in the minds of the citizens upon whom our democracy depends most.
America, are we ready?
Hannah Becker is an American Democracy and Technology Fellow at the McCain Institute. She is the Vice President at Becker Digital and has taught at multiple universities, including Norwich University, Ottawa University, and Virginia Military Institute. As a Fellow at Joint Special Operations University, she researched Cyberwarfare and Strategic Influence for U.S. Special Operations Forces.