Kenyan youth turn to AI to fight government policies

On June 12, 2009, the day of Iran’s presidential elections, the country’s young citizens realized that something suspicious was happening. With the polls closed, the regime blocked the ability to send text messages and make phone calls. Even before the results were announced, state television began broadcasting calls to answer them. When it was revealed that, against all expectations, conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had defeated reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, accusations began to emerge that the results had been rigged by the ayatollahs, and citizens began to organize mass demonstrations.

Of course, this didn’t happen in traditional media, not even on the phone, but on the young internet platform, then barely three years old, Twitter (now X), as well as other social media platforms. While the government disrupted regular traffic and limited available bandwidth (largely to sabotage YouTube activity), Twitter managed to be a source of information exchange, coordinating demonstrations, and spreading information about what was happening in the country to the rest of the world. Twitter’s role was so central that the US State Department asked the company to suspend work on a network upgrade that would make the platform inaccessible, and they called the events the “Twitter revolution.” Two years later, the Iranian model served as the basis for the events of the Arab Spring.

It was an early example of how modern internet technology could be used to empower citizens against the government. An event of similar significance is currently taking place in Kenya; not in protests against election results, but in protests against a new budget law; and not through social media, but through artificial intelligence (AI).

According to a report by Semafor, in recent weeks, Gen Z has led a nationwide anti-government protest movement that is innovatively and creatively using AI and other digital tools to challenge and disrupt the political establishment and intensify the protest movement. The protests erupted after steep tax hikes included in the 2024 Budget Bill, which was introduced a few weeks ago and already saw a significant achievement in the form of the bill being repealed. Now, protesters are looking to build on their success and demand the resignation of President William Ruto.

The protests began in mid-June, like many protests today, with social media, particularly TikTok and X, being used to organize and coordinate demonstrations (mostly through live streaming video or audio). Protesters have also used the platforms to raise funds for medical expenses and funerals for protesters who were injured or killed during the protests (39 protesters have been killed in the country, according to human rights organizations). One online campaign, led by journalist-activist Hanifa Farsafi, had raised $234,000 from 35,000 donors as of Sunday. Protesters are also using lesser-known apps, such as the walkie-talkie app Zello, which helps send information quickly.

At the same time, protesters are using modern AI tools to share information with the public. A ChatGPT-based chatbot called Corrupt Politicians provides information on corruption cases involving politicians. For example, entering Ruto’s name gives a list of nine scandals he has been involved in, with follow-up questions to understand the significance and implications of each scandal.

Another chatbot, called Finance Bill GPT, was created to help citizens understand the implications of the budget bill by simplifying complicated jargon and can answer questions such as the implications of digital services or help a user calculate their net salary if the bill becomes law. The Parliament chatbot relies on documents and databases collected by users and allows for analysis of the political activity of politicians from the ruling party.

This usage is not surprising given Kenya’s young population: 75% of the country’s citizens are 35 or younger, with a median age of 19. The country also has one of the highest concentrations of programmers and developers in Africa, and a strong and thriving technology ecosystem. These create a broad audience of activists eager and ready to use new digital tools creatively, with the necessary technical capabilities to leverage those tools to their advantage.

The use of artificial intelligence tools is already raising concerns among the administration, which is trying to present it as something negative.

It’s easy to be tempted to herald modern AI services as game-changers in the relationship between people and the state, much like we wanted Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms to be about a decade and a half ago. To some extent, it’s also fair to assume that, like them, these services will join the toolkit of activists and protest organizers. Today, using social media to spread messages, coordinate, and organize demonstrations is routine, an essential part of the process, but it’s not seen as innovative or extraordinary. Ultimately, however, the platforms were not game-changers. The Twitter revolution in Iran failed, as did most of the Arab Spring revolutions that followed, both because the tools weren’t powerful enough to create a significant shift in the balance of power and because the authorities learned to cope with them and mute their effects.

At the same time, governments and bad actors have also learned how to use platforms to their advantage, to sow division, smear opponents, and spread propaganda and lies. They do so with great success, which allows them to organize the positive uses of platforms in the fight against them, and it is possible that the end result will also tilt in their favor.

There’s no reason to think that the situation will be any different with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and others. Protesters and activists may be ahead of the curve and first to identify ways to use them for their own purposes, but the backlash won’t last long, and the more effective these tools are, the more likely it is that governments will find ways to neutralize them and then leverage their use for their own purposes.