Turning 20 Years of Community Board Data Into Searchable Public Knowledge
Local government generates enormous amounts of public knowledge, but much of it remains buried in disconnected PDFs and difficult-to-navigate archives. This post explores how the Block Party team used AI, semantic search, and human expertise to build a searchable archive of 17 years of Manhattan Community Board 3 resolutions, making local government decisions, institutional memory, and civic participation more accessible to residents, journalists, and public officials.
Published on Jun 9, 2026 by Sarah Sachs and Tal Roded
AI and Problem Solving
Civic University – Democracy, AI, and the Public Imagination
As AI transforms how we work, learn, and govern, what role should universities play? In this wide-ranging conversation, Beth Noveck argues that universities should become laboratories for democratic problem-solving, where students work with communities to address public challenges. She outlines a vision for "democratic AI" that puts public purpose, participation, and impact at the center of technological innovation.
Published on Jun 8, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck
Beth Simone Noveck on Cool Science Radio : AI and the Race to Save Democracy
In this interview with Cool Science Radio, Beth Simone Noveck discusses the central argument of her new book, Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy, that AI is not simply a threat to democracy but a tool that can help make governments more effective, responsive, and participatory. Drawing on examples from around the world, she explores how AI can improve public services, strengthen civic engagement, and rebuild trust in democratic institutions.
Published on Jun 8, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck
Global AI Watch
From digital to AI-enabled government: Kazakhstan's next frontier
Kazakhstan built one of the world’s most advanced digital governments in less than two decades. Now the country is racing into the next phase: AI-enabled governance, sovereign AI infrastructure, and nationwide AI deployment. But this transition is exposing a harder question beneath the ambition: what happens when countries move toward frontier AI systems before large parts of the population have reliable electricity, affordable internet, laptops, or the skills needed to use AI meaningfully?
Published on Jun 3, 2026 by Gulnaz Kordanova
AI and Education
The Scotsman: Scotland uniquely able to redefine the purpose of universities, Obama advisor claims
Ahead of a timely conversation around the civic role of the university in an age of democratic uncertainty and rapid technological change, Beth Simone Noveck spoke to the Scotsman about how Scotland's universities are uniquely place to reinvent the purpose of higher education.
Published on Jun 2, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck
Research Radar
Research Radar: 10 Things Public Officials Should Know About AI Data Centers
AI data centers are arriving in communities long before most public institutions have figured out how to govern them. Drawing on recent analysis, fieldwork, and an InnovateUS workshop, Deborah Stine examines the questions public officials are now confronting around electricity, water, jobs, infrastructure, public trust, and community impact. She argues that AI data centers are far more than technology projects; they are major public policy decisions that will shape how communities experience the AI economy.
Published on Jun 2, 2026 by Dr. Deborah Stine
AI for Governance
Leadership is About Setting Goals, Supporting the Team, and Getting Out of the Way
Public servants are asking for leadership training at the same moment AI is reshaping government work. This reflection on InnovateUS’s Foundations of Leadership workshop series explores why the most important leadership challenges today are often deeply human ones: creating psychological safety, building real teams instead of loose groups, giving honest feedback, understanding strengths, and helping people perform under pressure and uncertainty. Across five sessions, participants wrestled with the gap between knowing what good leadership looks like and consistently practicing it within real organizations.
Published on Jun 1, 2026 by Anita McGahan
Global AI Watch
Bellagio: Five Days, 16 Members of Congress, and an Unusually Honest Conversation About AI
Mariana Becerra of the Eleanor Crook Foundation went to the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center expecting a conversation about AI and geopolitical competition with bipartisan, bicameral members of Congress. She came back convinced that AI is already reshaping how public health systems function, how advocacy operates, and which organizations will have the capacity to influence policy. Drawing on conversations with lawmakers, researchers, and philanthropy leaders, this piece examines the growing gap between where AI governance debates are happening and the resulting consequences.
Published on May 27, 2026 by Mariana Becerra
Research Radar
Research Radar: The Six-Word Problem: Will Voice Improve How We Research the Impacts of AI?
AI for Impact Fellows Sai Punith Kolla and Swaapnika Chowdary Cherukuru built Public Voice, a lightweight voice-based feedback tool designed to capture concrete examples of how learners apply AI in practice. The piece explores the design challenge behind the tool, why voice responses may produce richer evidence than text surveys, and what it means to measure whether public-sector AI training is translating into real workflow change.
Published on May 26, 2026 by Sai Punith Kolla and Swaapnika Chowdary Cherukuru
AI for Governance
Why Effective AI Governance Depends on Strong Justice Systems
As governments rush to regulate AI, many governance frameworks still overlook what happens when people are harmed. This piece argues that AI governance will be tested by legal systems already struggling to deliver equal access to justice. Drawing on the recent report "A People-Centered Justice Approach to Implementing AI Governance," examples from Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States make the case for bringing courts, legal aid organizations, and justice institutions into the center of AI governance design.
Published on May 25, 2026 by Nate Edwards
Global AI Watch
Mandatory Reporting vs. Substantive Oversight: Examining AI Ethics in the Turkish School System
As governments search for ways to operationalize AI ethics inside public institutions, Türkiye’s new YAZEK system offers an early example of what procedural AI governance can look like in practice. The piece examines how the Ministry of Education embedded mandatory AI ethics declarations into everyday administrative workflows, while also exploring the system’s limits around verification, oversight, and remedy when automated systems cause harm.
Published on May 20, 2026 by Elif Davutoglu
Rethinking Regulation
The Reports Nobody Reads: How San Francisco Used AI to Declutter Its Municipal Code
In a new piece for the Rethinking Regulation series, Dane Gambrell examines how San Francisco used a custom AI tool developed with Stanford’s RegLab to scan 16 million words of municipal code and identify hundreds of outdated and duplicative reporting requirements across city government. The effort ultimately produced a 351-page ordinance proposing the deletion or consolidation of 174 mandates. The piece offers a grounded look at how AI can help governments make sprawling bureaucratic systems more legible and manageable.
Published on May 19, 2026 by Dane Gambrell
AI for Governance
The Future We Build: Hope and Public Service at Code for America Summit
A reflection from Rob Asaro-Angelo, Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center, from the 2026 Code for America Summit on why optimism in government depends on implementation. Drawing from conversations on procurement reform, service delivery, and AI in the public sector, the piece explores how public servants across the country are turning institutional frustration into practical change and why hope becomes credible when people have the tools, authority, and persistence to make systems work better.
Published on May 18, 2026 by Robert Asaro-Angelo
AI for Governance
AI Can Help Our Leaders Be Better
In an article originally published in The Times (Scottish Edition), Beth Simone Noveck argues that AI’s most important democratic use is helping governments listen. Drawing on examples from Camden and Scotland, the piece explores how AI could help public institutions process large-scale public input, strengthen participation, and rebuild trust at a time when governments face rising demand and declining capacity.
Published on May 14, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck
Research Radar
Zero-Click Government: Omakase or Loss of Agency?
In the afterword to Gustavo Maia’s forthcoming book Zero-Click Government, Beth Simone Noveck explores the democratic risks and possibilities of anticipatory governance. While supporting efforts to reduce the administrative burdens placed on citizens, she argues that traditional requests and applications also served as an important democratic feedback signal, one that anticipatory systems risk losing when governments act on inferred demand. Her response examines what kinds of participation, transparency, contestation, and institutional learning are needed if public action is increasingly shaped by data and AI.
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