POLITISKT FÖRTROENDE OCH REGLERING AV AI Demokratisk legitimitet i en digital tidsålder

Abstract

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) raises pressing questions about regulation and the role of political trust in shaping democratic legitimacy for such policies. This study explores the relationship between political trust and support for AI-regulation using a mixed-methods approach that combines crosssectional data with an experimental design. The aim is to uncover both correlational patterns and causal mechanisms influencing public support for AI-regulation. The cross-sectional analysis reveals a positive correlation between political trust and support for AI regulation, although this relationship disappears when political trust is operationalized as satisfaction with democracy. The experimental results partly confirm a general association between political trust and regulatory support but find no significant impact of emotionally charged information, suggesting limited influence of new information in shaping pre-established political attitudes. These findings highlight the complexity of the relationship between political trust and support for AIregulation and the potential methodological limitations of the current study. The study underscores the importance of fostering political trust to enhance public acceptance of AI regulation while considering ideological diversity. Future research should address the limitations of outdated data and non-representative samples by incorporating updated, more diverse samples and longitudinal approaches. This would provide a deeper understanding of how trust and regulation interact over time in rapidly evolving technological and political contexts.