Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI

In late September, the UN adopted a global AI resolution backed by all 193 Member States, a diplomatic milestone. But one that risks repeating old patterns of top-down governance. The new Reboot Democracy Blog Editor, Elana Banin, argues that legitimacy doesn’t come from declarations, but from grounded, democratic practice. From California to Vietnam, she explores what real AI governance looks like and lays out three strategic tests the UN must pass to matter.

Large Language Models are becoming common tools in the communications toolkit, but not all uses are created equal. In this new post from the AIMES Lab at Northeastern University, John Wihbey and Samantha D’Alonzo offer research-backed guidance on when to use LLMs in the survey pipeline and when to steer clear. The research indicates that AI is a powerful assistant for refining survey questions and testing hypotheses, but a poor substitute for actual human respondents. Drawing on more than 30 academic studies, this piece lays out a practical, hybrid approach to “silicon sampling” that helps practitioners strengthen research integrity without falling for AI’s easy shortcuts.

AI’s biggest breakthroughs were built on public datasets; the next wave should be, too. If governments make data AI-ready and keep access open, we can power tools that explain laws, improve services, and widen participation. In return, companies that train on taxpayer data should give back, through open licenses, benchmarks, and capacity that strengthen public institutions.