From Data to Influence: ISOC-IL’s Insights on AI’s Role in Modern Elections

Dr. Asaf Wiener, ISOC-IL’s Director of Research and Public Policy, shared ISOC-IL research and insights in a special panel discussion about Data and Elections at Reichman University’s Sammy Ofer School of Communications. The panel addressed one of the central public-policy questions of the AI era: how data-driven technologies, generative AI, and automated influence tools are reshaping election campaigns, voter autonomy, and public trust.

Photo: Adi Cohen Zedek

Reichman University’s Sammy Ofer School of Communications hosted its annual academic conference of Communication Studies, focusing this year on addressing AI’s influence on media, creativity, public consciousness, elections, fake news, and the future of communications. The conference brought together leading voices from media, academia, technology, and public policy and examined topics ranging from AI-generated content, journalism, and election campaigns to digital literacy, human-AI interaction, intellectual property, and the ethical and regulatory challenges of emerging technologies.

Dr. Asaf Wiener, Director of Research and Public Policy at ISOC-IL, participated in the “Data and Elections” panel, moderated by Bini Ashkenazi, alongside Dr. Tal Elovits and Dr. Limor Ziv. The panel addressed one of the central questions challenging democracies in the AI era: how data-driven technologies, generative AI, and automated influence tools are changing election campaigns, voter autonomy, and public trust. The discussion covered issues such as political profiling, microtargeting, automated messaging, bots, synthetic content, and the growing difficulty of distinguishing authentic civic discourse from coordinated digital influence.

Dr. Asaf Wiener Addreses From Data to Influence Panel at Reichman University

During the discussion, Dr. Wiener argued that data-driven targeting in election campaigns should not be viewed merely as a discrete technical risk to be managed, but as a structural change in the conditions under which democratic choice is exercised. Reflecting ISOC-IL’s broader research and policy work in this area, he noted that the digital information environment is increasingly shaped by profiling, microtargeting, and automated amplification mechanisms whose logic is often driven by commercial incentives rather than democratic considerations.

Dr. Wiener emphasized that protecting democratic processes in an era of big-data targeting, algorithmic curation, and generative AI is not about restraining technology as an end in itself, but about ensuring that the digital environment on which public discourse depends remains open, trustworthy, and accountable. He highlighted the need for practical and durable safeguards, including greater transparency regarding political profiling and targeting practices, strong data-protection norms, meaningful platform accountability, and increased public awareness. He also stressed the importance of empowering civil society, alongside regulators, election authorities, academia, and the media, to scrutinize these practices and their impact on democratic participation. In this context, he argued that freedom of expression and an open Internet are not in tension with such measures, but are among the very values they are intended to protect.

The conference highlighted the urgency of addressing these challenges before they become election-period crises. The discussion reinforced ISOC-IL’s call for a rights-based, evidence-informed approach to AI governance, one that protects both democratic resilience and the open, trustworthy digital environment on which public discourse depends.

Further reading on ISOC-IL’s policy work on AI and Democracy: