Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI

This week on Reboot Democracy, Sarosh Nagar and David Eaves examine what it will take for governments to govern AI agents already operating in open environments, from building trust infrastructure to managing multi-agent risks. Alister Martin and the Link Health team show how pairing AI with human navigators can help close the public benefits gap, underscoring the need for stronger evidence to guide investment. Beth Simone Noveck reflects on the challenges of teaching democratic engagement in the age of AI, highlighting the tradeoffs behind course design. Beyond Reboot, the White House announced new appointments to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, as emerging work in AI ethics and political theory argues that AI systems need “normative competence” to function in democratic contexts. California is moving to limit AI workplace surveillance, New York City schools have introduced guidance, and the National Science Foundation has launched a nationwide effort to build AI readiness. Evidence of chatbot dependency is prompting calls for safeguards, a wrongful arrest tied to facial recognition underscores persistent challenges, and globally, export controls continue to struggle to contain AI proliferation.

Designing a one-hour course on democratic engagement and AI means confronting genuinely hard questions about representativeness, political framing, and audience, where thoughtful experts disagree, and every choice involves a real tradeoff. Over the past week, we drafted, debated, and cut more than 25,000 words to a working script, informed by over 300 comments from 50 advisors across 24 countries and a room full of democratic theorists in Barcelona. This post explains the three hardest calls we had to make and why we made them.

Millions of Americans miss out on health and food assistance benefits due to fragmented systems and complex enrollment processes. This piece explores how Link Health, in partnership with the AI for Impact program, is combining AI tools with human navigators to rethink how public benefits are delivered in healthcare settings. It argues that the next frontier is better evidence. States should fund research to compare enrollment approaches, portal design, and navigator support to determine which improve health outcomes and guide smarter public investment.