AI can read media reports and detect biases/misleading information, with the potential to make propaganda more transparent. AI could serve policy by reading a million little environmental signals for a variety of reasons, from understanding risk in a given situation to recommending interest rate adjustments.

The greatest near-term risk of sophisticated AI in my opinion is that it's likely to be used by the powerful to further consolidate their power. Good AI could already make a UFO hoax look believable.