What I learned from another Churchill Fellow’s journey Chris Bush is one of my 2024 Churchill buddies. He is the other AI Churchill Fellow from Melbourne in the Class of 2024. Chris and I bonded at the onboarding event last year in Canberra, and have become good friends as we both navigated our respective projects. He's also become somewhat of an AI mentor to me, kicking me off with AI tools and helping to demystify things when I was just starting out.

Launching my Churchill report on International Day of Democracy 2025 Today feels like the perfect day to share something I've been working on for over a year. Today, I'm launching "Trust, Manipulation, and Democratic Resilience: Investigating the use of AI for the spread of disinformation during elections" - a comprehensive report born from fieldwork across India, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States during 2024's "super year" of global elections.

When the UN Secretary-General acknowledges that "democracy and the rule of law are under assault from disinformation, division, and shrinking civic space," he's not just describing distant threats—he's calling each of us to action. As we count down to the publication of my report, the question becomes deeply personal: What will each of us do to strengthen democratic life? Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression." But rights come with responsibilities.

As we approach the UN's International Day of Democracy on September 15, there's something deeply hopeful for me about this year's theme "From Voice to Action." At a time when headlines focus on AI threats and technological disruption, my Churchill Fellowship journey across the world has revealed to me that the human spirit of democratic participation remains remarkably resilient. This year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres celebrates "

After 18 months researching AI's impact on democracy across the world, I've reached a perhaps counterintuitive conclusion: sophisticated technological solutions may matter less than what we as individuals do with information in their daily practices. My Churchill Fellowship research consistently found that individual agency remains among the most powerful defences against algorithmic manipulation and disinformation campaigns. While institutions develop AI detection tools and platform policies, evidence suggests that conscious information practices by citizens create resilience that technological solutions alone cannot achieve.

How do media organisations responsibly report on AI-generated disinformation without inadvertently spreading the very content they seek to expose? My Churchill Fellowship research reveals this fundamental challenge facing journalism in the AI age, where traditional reporting practices may require significant adaptation. Current media coverage of AI-enabled disinformation often follows familiar patterns—linking to original sources, providing detailed descriptions of false content, or presenting threats in ways that might increase rather than decrease public vulnerability.

My Churchill Fellowship research uncovered an intriguing asymmetry in how political parties approach AI-generated content during elections. This finding raises fundamental questions about voluntary ethical leadership versus regulatory intervention in an age where artificial intelligence increasingly shapes political discourse. The evidence from my fieldwork shows that right-leaning parties are more willing to deploy AI-generated disinformation, creating particular challenges for politically neutral institutions like electoral commissions.

While state electoral commissions manage immediate operational pressures, federal government possesses unique coordination capabilities for addressing AI-enabled threats across Australian democracy. My Churchill Fellowship research across the world suggests what comprehensive national approaches might entail. The evidence points toward questions about the need for permanent coordination mechanisms supporting all Australian electoral jurisdictions. Many successful international democracies invest in permanent infrastructure, recognising that information threats don't align with electoral timetables.

While national attention often focuses on the Australian Electoral Commission's preparedness for AI threats during elections, state electoral commissions face a distinctly different challenge: near-continuous election cycles, varying funding models, and diverse technical capabilities to address evolving information threats. Yes, that's right. Every state and territory has their own electoral commission, separately funded by their state or territory government. We are not the state offices of the AEC!

Lessons from 2024's Global Democratic Test The headlines warned 2024 would be the year AI-generated disinformation destroyed democracy. With over 2 billion people voting across 50+ countries, experts predicted deepfakes would flood social media, synthetic audio would manipulate voters, and AI-powered influence operations would determine election outcomes. Yet as 2024's "super election year" concluded, the AI apocalypse had largely failed to materialise.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is an independent, bipartisan commission dedicated to improving the administration of elections and helping Americans participate in the voting process. I had the pleasure of meeting with Commissioners Donald Palmer, Thomas Hicks, and Benjamin Hovland for an insightful discussion at their headquarters in Washington, DC. L to R: Commissioner Thomas Hicks, Mairead, Commissioner Benjamin Hovland…

Katie Harbath, CEO of Anchor Change, is a well-known figure in the tech world, especially from her time at Facebook as the Director of Public Policy for global elections. I had the pleasure of meeting Katie at DC’s iconic Hamilton restaurant, and she was incredibly generous with her insights and experiences. Lunch at the Hamilton with Katie Harbath One of the key topics we discussed was the diverse nature of AI tools.

I've been a full week in DC now, and my time has been full of meetings and reflection time. Because I am still processing my various conversations, you'll see the blog posts trickling in over the coming week, but in the meantime this is a taste of what I've been up to. First up: Tim Harper at the Center for Democracy and Technology, where I was inspired by their excellent wall art!

Bruce Schneier first came to my attention through an article he wrote for Wired a few weeks after the 2024 US Presidential election. That led me to an extensive body of work that focuses on cryptography and cybersecurity, but fires some well-aimed missiles at the intersection of AI and elections. Bruce kindly agreed to meet with me for my Churchill project, at his office at the Harvard Kennedy School.

My last meeting in Ireland - and indeed in Europe - was with Linette Lim, a PhD candidate at the Connected_Politics lab in my alma mater of UCD. Previously a journalist, her area of interest is media and propaganda in authoritarian regimes and in smaller liberal democracies close to those regimes. Dublin being a small town, we met for a coffee one afternoon and literally two days later she was sat two rows behind me on my flight to London!

Ireland’s electoral commission, An Coimisiún Toghcháin, was established in February 2023 out of the 2022 Electoral Reform Act. Whilst they do not physically run elections like the electoral commissions in Australia, their other responsibilities are similar. I met with a number of their management team, and their CEO Art O’Leary, over a few days in Dublin, and had great conversations about electoral integrity, public engagement and education, electoral research and, of course, the impact of AI on the spread of disinformation during elections.

I did a video with some thoughts on my long conversation with Craig Smith from the University of Salford. But Wordpress is not playing nicely with my new format so here's a link to the LinkedIn post! We spent most of our time in the beautiful Storyhouse, a charity-run complex that include a library, a coffeeshop and bar (in the library!), performance spaces and a cinema.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is dedicated to exploring the future of journalism worldwide through debate, engagement, and research. "We believe in the value of independent journalism, the power of news, and the importance of an informed public. We are committed to the timeless journalistic aspiration of seeking truth and reporting it, as well as the ongoing work of remaking the profession and the organisations that enable it.

Hey everybody – I seem to be constantly a few days behind in posting updates to my blog! It seems that every day flies by in a whirlwind of conversations, deep thought, new experiences and deep conversations. So I want to go back to a meeting I had in London with Lalah Simone Springer, a journalist, writer, published poet…

Compassion in Politics - Welsh Government commits to ban lying in Parliament Alan Turing Institute (CETaS) November 2024 paper: AI-enabled Influence Operations: Safeguarding Future Elections

Just because 2024's "biggest election year ever" is over, global voting continues in 2025. In Australia, the federal election is coming up soon. In Ireland, they're setting up for a Presidential election later in the year. And in the UK, it's the local elections taking place in May. The use of AI to spread disinformation is still a huge risk. High-profile politicians and foreign actors alike continue to try and polarise society by generating outrage with synthetic content.

My key insights from my discussions in India are as follows, in no particular order. Digital provenance is a good idea, the C2PA standards being the go-to. "Detecting whether or not digital content is fake is currently impossible at internet scale and speed" but it is far more straightforward to identify who created it and how, when, and where it was created or edited.

India's Association for Democratic Reform (ADR) was established in 1999 by a group of professors who filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with Delhi High Court asking for the disclosure of the criminal, financial and educational background of the candidates contesting elections. As a result, the Supreme Court made it mandatory for all candidates contesting elections to disclose criminal, financial and educational background prior to elections.