AI tools increasingly mediate the political information ecosystem, as AI generated content proliferates on the internet, and a larger number of people acquire political knowledge - intentionally or not - from LLMs and conversational agents. Conversely, perceptions of and attitudes towards such political content are influenced by various factors, including people’s political ideologies, design considerations, and broader AI attitudes.
In her research, ElKattan examines how people perceive objectivity, trust, and ideological signals in AI-generated political content based on both design and political congruence. She builds on the political science literature on news consumption and motivated reasoning to understand how confirmation bias, ideological information seeking, and (mis)perceptions about machines impact the AI-influenced news ecosystem. By exposing participants to political content that varies in both design (e.g., static text vs. chatbot) and partisanship (e.g. Republican vs. Democrat-leaning), she finds that participants perceive AI generation differently depending on both design and political alignment.
Results indicate the need for a better understanding of how the design and presentation of AI content, readers’ political views, and congruence of content generated by AI tools (e.g., sycophantic conversational agents) influence the reception and influence of AI-generated content. Understanding how technology design mediates our access to political information - beyond homogenizing notions of “AI” and “social media” - is thus crucial for understanding how political knowledge is acquired, political opinions formed, and political decisions made on the internet.
Bio:
Alia ElKattan is a researcher who examines the sociopolitical implications of online platforms and emerging technologies. She obtained her Ph.D. at NYU Politics, where her research focused on how the design of technology mediates the acquisition of political information, and how to motivate and safeguard responsible, healthy, and critical engagement with emerging technologies such as large language models and conversational agents. She also has a creative technology practice which leverages play and interactive storytelling to both demystify opaque technologies, and expand public imaginaries of alternative technological futures. ElKattan is a grantee of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund and a two-time winner of Mozilla Foundation’s Creative Media Award for work on AI bias, data transparency, user choice in algorithmic feeds. Her work has been published in venues such as Sociological Science, FAccT, the Journal for Quantitative Description, and and been presented in media festivals including the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the Netherlands, Sheffield DocFest in the UK, and March On Festival in Washington, DC, among others. When not writing code or papers, ElKattan can most often be found playing football (soccer), skateboarding, or making playlists.
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