AnalysisKenya's youth turn to AI in battle against government policies
Analysis
Kenya's youth turn to AI in battle against government policies
How artificial intelligence is empowering young activists to drive political change
On June 12, 2009, the day of the presidential elections in Iran, the young citizens of the country realized that something suspicious was happening. With the closing of the polls, the regime blocked the possibility of sending SMS or making cell phone calls. Even before the results were published, state television had already started broadcasting calls to accept them. When it was revealed that, contrary to all expectations, the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had defeated the reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, allegations began to surface that the results had been rigged by the ayatollahs, and citizens began to organize mass demonstrations.
This did not happen in traditional media, of course, not even through the telephone, but on a young online platform, only three years old at the time, Twitter (now X), as well as other social media platforms. While the government disrupted regular network traffic and limited the available bandwidth (mainly to sabotage YouTube activity), Twitter managed to be a source for exchanging information, coordinating demonstrations, and spreading information about what was happening in the country to the rest of the world. Twitter's role was so central that the U.S. State Department asked the company to suspend work to upgrade the network that would have made the platform unavailable, and they called the events the "Twitter Revolution." Two years later, the Iranian model would serve as a basis for the events of the Arab Spring.
It was an early example of how modern online technology can be used to empower citizens in struggles against the government. These days, in Kenya, an event of similar significance is taking place; not in protests against election results but in a protest against a new budget law; and not with social media but with artificial intelligence (AI).
According to a report by the Semafor website, in recent weeks members of Generation Z have been leading a nationwide antigovernmental protest there that makes innovative and creative use of AI and other digital tools to undermine and disrupt the moves of the political establishment and intensify the protest. The protest was ignited following sharp tax increases included in the budget law for 2024, which was introduced a few weeks ago, and has already registered a significant achievement in the form of the repeal of the law. Now the protesters want to leverage the success and demand the resignation of President William Ruto.
The protests began in mid-June, like many protests today, on social media, particularly on TikTok and X, which were used to organize and coordinate demonstrations (mainly through the live streaming capabilities of video or audio). The protestors also used the platforms to raise funds for medical expenses and to fund the funerals of protesters who were injured or killed during the protest (39 protesters were killed, according to a human rights organization in the country). One online campaign, led by activist journalist Hanifa Farsafi, has raised $234,000 from 35,000 donors, as of Sunday. The demonstrators also make use of lesser-known applications, such as the Zello walkie-talkie application, which helps to transfer information quickly.
At the same time, the protesters are leveraging modern AI tools to make information accessible to the public. A ChatGPT-based chatbot called Corrupt Politicians provides information on corruption cases involving politicians. Entering Ruto's name, for example, yields a list of nine scandals he was involved in, where follow-up questions can be entered to understand the importance of any scandal and its implications.
Another chatbot, named Finance Bill GPT, was created to help understand the implications of the budget law on citizens by simplifying complicated jargon, and it can answer questions such as the effects of digital services or help the user calculate their net salary if the law comes into effect. The Parliament chatbot is based on documents and databases compiled by users and enables the political activity of politicians from the ruling party to be analyzed.
This use is not surprising in light of Kenya's young population: 75% of the country's citizens are 35 years old or younger, and the median age there is 19. In addition, the country has one of the largest concentrations of developers and programmers in Africa, and a developed and thriving technological ecosystem. These produce a wide audience of activists willing and ready to make creative uses of new digital tools, with the necessary technical capabilities to leverage these tools for their needs.
The use of AI tools is already raising concerns among the administration, which is trying to portray it as negative.
It is easy to be tempted to declare modern artificial intelligence services as a tool that’s a game-changer in the relationship between the person and the state, similar to how we wanted to see Twitter, Facebook, and the other social platforms about a decade and a half ago. To a certain extent, it can also be assumed that, like them, these services will join the toolset of activists and organizers of protests. Today, using social media to convey messages, coordinate and organize demonstrations is already routine, an essential part of the process, but not one that is perceived as innovative or unusual. However, in the end, the platforms did not become a game-changing tool. Iran's Twitter revolution failed, as did most of the Arab Spring revolutions that followed. Both because the tools were not powerful enough to produce a distinct change in the balance of power, and because the authorities learned to deal with them and suppress their effects.
At the same time, governments and bad actors have also learned how to leverage the platforms to their advantage, for the purpose of sowing division, slandering opponents and spreading propaganda and lies. They do this with great success, one that manages to sort out the positive uses that can be made of the platforms in the fight against them, and it is possible that the bottom line also tilts in their favor.
There is no reason to think that the situation will be different with OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and others. Protesters and activists may be ahead of the curve and the first to identify ways to leverage them for their purposes, but the backlash will not be long in coming, and the more successful the tools are, the more likely governments will find ways to neutralize them, and then leverage their use for their own purposes.
