AI Could Solve Partisan Gerrymandering, if Humans Can Agree on What's Fair - AI Trends

With the 2020 US Census results having been delivered to the states, now the process begins for using the population results to draw new Congressional districts. Gerrymandering, a practice intended to establish a political advantage by manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts, is expected to be practiced on a wide scale with Democrats having a slight margin of seats in the House of Representatives and Republicans seeking to close the gap in states where they hold a majority in the legislature. Today, more powerful redistricting software incorporating AI and machine learning is available, and it represents a double-edged sword. The pessimistic view is that the gerrymandering software will enable legislators to gerrymander with more precision than ever before, to ensure maximum advantages. This was called "political laser surgery" by David Thornburgh, president of the Committee of Seventy, an anti-corruption organization that considers the 2010 redistricting as one of the worst in the country's history, according to an account in the Columbia Political Review.