---
type: claim
domain: ai-alignment
description: "Majority willingness to defer to AI over human representatives creates ambiguity about whether democratic alignment targets human authority or AI optimization"
confidence: experimental
source: "CIP Year in Review 2025, Global Dialogues findings"
created: 2026-03-11
secondary_domains: [collective-intelligence]
---

# 58% of Global Dialogues participants believe AI could make superior decisions versus local elected representatives, creating ambiguity about whether democratic alignment targets human authority or AI optimization

CIP's Global Dialogues found that 58% of participants believed AI could make superior decisions compared to local elected representatives. This finding is deeply ambiguous: it could indicate trust in AI-augmented democratic processes, or willingness to cede decision authority to AI systems.

If the latter interpretation is correct, it undermines the human-in-the-loop thesis at scale. Democratic alignment assumes humans want to retain decision authority while using AI as a tool. But if a majority believes AI should make decisions instead of humans, the alignment target shifts from "AI that helps humans decide" to "AI that decides on behalf of humans."

The 28% who agreed "AI should override established rules if calculating better outcomes" reinforces this ambiguity. This is not a fringe position — it's more than one in four participants endorsing consequentialist AI authority over rule-of-law constraints. The 47% who felt chatbot interactions increased their belief certainty suggests AI influence on human judgment formation itself.

The critical question is whether these responses reflect:
1. Frustration with current representatives (AI as protest vote)
2. Genuine belief in AI superiority (AI as technocratic authority)
3. Misunderstanding of what "AI decision-making" means in practice

Without disambiguation, democratic alignment infrastructure may be building toward a goal (human authority) that the majority does not actually want.

## Evidence
- 58% believed AI could make superior decisions vs. local elected representatives (CIP Global Dialogues, 10,000+ participants, 70+ countries)
- 28% agreed AI should override established rules if calculating better outcomes
- 47% felt chatbot interactions increased their belief certainty

## Limitations
The survey question framing is not provided in the source. "Could make superior decisions" is ambiguous — superior in what sense? Faster? More informed? More aligned with participant values? The interpretation depends heavily on how the question was asked. Without access to the survey instrument, we cannot determine whether responses reflect genuine preference for AI authority or misunderstanding of the question. This is a single survey from a single organization, so confidence is experimental.

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Relevant Notes:
- [[democratic alignment assemblies produce constitutions as effective as expert-designed ones while better representing diverse populations]] — but may be building toward AI authority rather than human authority
- [[AI alignment is a coordination problem not a technical problem]] — coordination around what goal?
- [[safe AI development requires building alignment mechanisms before scaling capability]] — but what if the alignment target is AI decision authority?
