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Chapter 4 in Democracy in the era of Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Risks
Abstract
This chapter examines the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by domestic political actors in the production of persuasive content in the 2024 United States presidential election. The research problem illustrates the absence of a systematic qualitative analysis of the internal rhetorical mechanisms that influence the perception of voters in political texts, images, and audiovisual materials created by artificial intelligence. This study adopts a qualitative interpretive design that draws on classical rhetorical analysis and reflexive thematic coding of a curated sample of 214 AI-generated artefacts from fact-checking repositories, scholarly archives, and investigative journalism reports. Generative AI is hypothesized to enable a new form of outsourcing that is referred to as "persuasive outsourcing," where emotional identity maintenance is outsourced to algorithmic systems on an unprecedented scale and level of personalization. The results show three major rhetorical strategies: hyper-personalized emotional appeals (pathos), synthetic authority construction (ethos), and mutually irreconcilable factual claims (fragmented logos). These techniques are part of democratic fragmentation, as they undermine common factual bases and accentuate affective polarization. The study provides theoretical analysis of the issue of political communication mediated by AI and practical suggestions for journalists, educators, and policymakers.