AI

#189: Crafting Political Storytelling with Qualitative Methods and AI, with Frank A. Spring

November 14, 2025 Digital Strategists

Frank A. Spring, founding partner at Altum Insight and managing partner of Undaunted Ventures, shares how qualitative methods can understand the stories voters tell themselves about politics. Frank discusses his work using AI-moderated interviews (AIMI) and digital ethnography to analyze citizens’ understanding of democracy, and how these insights can be used to inform political storytelling. 


We also discuss generalizability from this type data, the importance of cultural context, and the ethics of stories’ relationship to facts.  

#185: How the EU is Shielding Elections from Disinformation, Manipulation, and AI, with Jakub Szymik

June 22, 2025 Civil Society

Jakub Szymik, Founder of CEE Digital Democracy Watch, discusses the EU’s ongoing initiatives to fight disinformation, regulate political advertising, and protect election integrity on social media. Jakub shares his insights on the Digital Services Act, the European Democracy Shield, and how these initiatives relate to digital political advertising on social media. We also discuss the latest Polish Presidential elections in terms of digital ad spending, Gen AI content, and political influencers.

 

CEE Digital Democracy Watch has just published a new report outlining how 60 stakeholder from CEE countries perceive the effectiveness of EU tech regulation and what challenges remain moving forward.

 

Read more about CEE Digital Democracy Watch’s proposed policy actions for the European Democracy Shield, including the disinformation monitoring service mentioned in the episode. 

#181: AI and Political Campaigns, with Dr. Michael D. Cohen

March 28, 2025 Academics

Dr. Michael D. Cohen, CEO of Cohen Research Group and author of Modern Political Campaigns, shares how artificial intelligence is impacting political campaigns. We discuss how AI is like an automated staffer, and what types of human involvement is still needed to craft a winning strategy. We also examine AI’s role in generating copy like social media posts and speeches, as well as how it can be used for qualitative data analysis such as focus groups. In addition, we consider how AI relates to trending concepts such as authenticity and political polarization. 

 

Get a copy of the 2nd edition of Modern Political Campaigns on Amazon or directly through the publisher.

 

And you can listen to a broader discussion of the book in an earlier episode. 

#167: 2023 Year in Review! Social Media and Politics, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

December 23, 2023 Academics

The 8th Annual Social Media and Politics Year in Review!


This year, we cover the platforms’ year in review reports, AI for political communication, the creator economy, and EU concerns around disinformation and cyberattacks.


Here are links to resources discussed in the episode, and see you in 2024!


Platform Reports:

Meta
Instagram
TikTok
Reddit
Pinterest
Snap
Twitch
Google
YouTube
Pornhub Insights

 

Jimmie Åkesson’s Arabic Deepfake

#141: Rating News Credibility with Algorithms, with Arjun Moorthy

April 17, 2022 Civil Society

Arjun Moorthy, co-founder and CEO of The Factual, discusses how machine learning and natural language processing can rank news for credibility. Arjun breaks down the criteria underpinning The Factual’s rating system as well as how it tries to minimize bias. We talk about some of the pitfalls of optimizing news for engagement, as well as how anonymity in a different incentive structure affects discourse around discussing news. Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the current state of AI in the newsroom, and how automation might affect news consumption in the future.


Check out the Unbiased Podcast!

And test out The Factual’s engine at IsThisCredible.com