AI Lund Lunch seminar: The Challenges of Generative AI for Democracy – Trust, Transparency, and Accountability in an AI-Infused Information Landscape

Topic: The Challenges of Generative AI for Democracy – Trust, Transparency, and Accountability in an AI-Infused Information Landscape

When: 10 June, 2026 12.00 to 13.00 CET

Where: Online - link by registration 

Speaker: Olof Sundin, Information Studies, Lund University

Abstract

This presentation examines the risks generative AI poses to democratic societies, focusing on its role in amplifying challenges related to disinformation and other forms of deceptive content within our digital information landscape. A central argument is that generative AI fundamentally alters the conditions for assessing the trustworthiness of information by making sources increasingly invisible. As AI systems mediate how information is produced, disseminated, and used, they erode the visibility of information provenance, complicating the public’s ability to assess credibility. The presentation will also address who bears responsibility for the accuracy of AI-generated content and how that responsibility can be meaningfully exercised. By exploring these challenges, the presentation aims to stimulate discussion on safeguarding the democratic requirements of trust, transparency, and accountability at a time when the boundaries between human and machine-generated information are increasingly blurred.

Bio: Olof Sundin is Professor of Information Studies at Lund University. His research focuses on the contemporary configuration and control of digital information and its social impact. In particular, he has studied media and information literacy as forms of infrastructural meaning-making. He is currently PI for “ReSEARCH: Researching the Transforming Landscape of Information Seeking” (Swedish Research Council) and is also a researcher on “NORDREN: The Nordic Disinformation Resilience Network” (Nordforsk) as well as of “Digital Vulnerability in the Automated Welfare State: Infrastructures, Citizen Perspectives, and Values” (Swedish Research Council).

Registration

To participate is free of charge. Sign up at ai.lu.se/2026-06-10/registration and we send you an access link to the zoom platform.