Schneier on Security

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders argue that the most consequential AI arms race isn't between the US and China, but within democratic institutions themselves. AI is flooding academic journals, courts, open source repositories, hiring pipelines, and public comment systems, creating adversarial loops where every actor is incentivized to escalate AI use. Using the FCC comment example and current Congressional AI adoption, they show how AI-mediated civic participation risks hollowing out genuine democratic engagement. Meanwhile, a handful of Big Tech corporations capture the economic gains regardless of which side wins each arms race. The authors call for both strategic use of AI by citizens and governments, and structural resistance through antitrust regulation, human rights protections, and public AI alternatives.