Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI

News That Caught Our Eye #64

In the news this week: New Jersey Governor Philip D. Murphy leads a panel with John Bailey, Afua Bruce and Matin Svensson of AI Sweden on “What Could Go Right with Our AI Future.” Research from Apple reveals that advanced AI models suffer "complete accuracy collapse.” India seeks public input for the 2026 AI Impact Summit. The Newsroom AI Lab funds smaller newsrooms to adopt AI tools, and more on federal efforts to ban states from regulating AI. Read more in this week’s AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on June 25, 2025

News that Caught Our Eye #63

In the news this week: Immigrant communities are using AI-powered apps to navigate the Trump administration’s surge in deportations. Amsterdam’s experiment developing an algorithmic welfare fraud detection system sparks a debate about whether AI can ever be bias-free. Gallup finds that the share of Americans using AI at work has doubled in two years. African democracies are using AI to strengthen civic engagement, while cities around the world deploy AI-powered systems to adapt to extreme heat. OpenAI wins a $200 million defense contract for national security AI tools. While New York advances legislation to guard against AI-fueled disasters, Beth Simone Noveck argues that the debate about the moratorium on state AI laws obscures the question of how we actually use these tools to fix our broken institutions. Read more in this week’s AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on June 18, 2025

Research Radar: AI Speeds Up Government Consultation Analysis Without Sacrificing Quality

New research from the UK Gov shows how AI could make it easier for institutions to do public engagement. A new process called "Consult" combined AI with human oversight to analyze public consultation responses with 76% accuracy in seconds.

Published on June 17, 2025

The debate over state-level AI bans misses the point

While Washington fights over who gets to say "no" to AI, they're missing the bigger question: how can we actually use these tools to fix our broken institutions? States like Ohio and New Jersey are already proving AI's transformative potential—cutting millions in bureaucratic waste, speeding up citizen services, and making government actually work for people. The real debate shouldn't be about regulation versus innovation, but about the AI we need to build, buy, and design to strengthen democracy.

Published on June 16, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #62

In the news this week: San Francisco’s City Attorney announced plans to use AI to streamline municipal codes. A position paper argues that collective bargaining rights for information producers could help to balance their power against AI product builders. Saudi Arabia aims to use AI-powered surveillance technology to improve safety during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage, while a new tool that uses AI tools to track body features and accessories could allow law enforcement agencies to circumvent bans on facial recognition technology. OpenAI is being ordered to store ChatGPT conversations indefinitely. Read more in this week’s AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on June 11, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #61

In the news this week: The GovLab wants your feedback on our new "Civic and Democratic AI" course which teaches people how to use AI to organize for community action. A Berlin Global Gov Tech Center whitepaper – "The Agentic State" – lays out an ambitious vision for how AI agents can reshape the core functions of government, while an AI Now report identifies strategies for how community organizers, policymakers, and the public can shape AI’s development and use. While Anthropic’s CEO warns that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, data from the Global AI Jobs Barometer shows that AI is making humans more valuable, not less. Contractors who work on Google’s AI products continue their campaign to organize a union, while a report finds that tech firms are exploiting workers in the Global South to develop AI models. Read more in this week’s AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on June 5, 2025

Research Radar: The Agentic State: A 20-Year Wish List, Finally Within Reach?

This week’s Research Radar highlights The Agentic State, an ambitious whitepaper arguing that AI agents could reshape the core functions of government. It’s a timely vision for public sector transformation —worth reading, debating, and building on.

Published on June 3, 2025

Civic and Democratic AI: A New Course for Community Action

We are developing "Civic and Democratic AI," an 8-part WhatsApp course that teaches people how to use generative AI to navigate government processes, understand complex documents, and organize for community action. The course aims to provide practical AI skills for civic engagement. We are seeking feedback on the course content. Share your insights and expertise as we roll out this free program to help communities use AI to understand their government, access their rights, and organize for change.

Published on June 2, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #60

In the news this week: A new whitepaper on Public AI outlines how open approaches to AI can be developed and institutionalized in the public interest. The EFF argues that new federal legislation intended to combat sexual deepfakes could open the door to censorship of political speech, while Sir Geoff Mulgan and researchers at UCL explain how well-designed institutions could effectively combat deepfakes in elections. An ILO study warns that automation may threaten women’s jobs more than men, while research from the Federal Reserve shows that demand for AI skills is greatest in highly-educated professions. Gideon Lichfield argues for a narrower version of Republicans' proposed ban on state AI laws, while an investigation finds that local police are providing ICE access to an AI-powered surveillance network. Read more in AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on May 29, 2025

Research Radar: Dreaming Better Elections Into Reality

A new white paper from The Institutional Architecture Lab argues that combating AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic content in elections requires purpose-built institutions. The authors propose Electoral Integrity Institutions that would coordinate across government, tech platforms, and civil society to scan, assess, and respond to synthetic content threats. But the paper also provokes a fundamental question: should we design institutions defensively to react to AI threats, or offensively to build better, more participatory and representative elections?

Published on May 27, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #59

In the news this week: With AI transforming the legal landscape, InnovateUS announces new training programs to equip public sector legal professionals with responsible AI skills. Miami-Dade schools embrace AI, deploying chatbots to 105,000 students, although U.S. schools were broadly unprepared for ChatGPT’s classroom impact. Meanwhile, The Center for Law and Social Policy warns that AI surveillance tools are disproportionately targeting Black students. AI should decentralize power, not entrench it—echoed by a new framework from The GovLab and Agence Française de Développement. In Washington, a new budget amendment seeks to block states from regulating AI for a decade. And in Kigali, Rwanda, the government is launching an AI-powered app to make legal texts more accessible to the public. Read more in this week’s AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on May 22, 2025

Coming Soon: InnovateUS to Offer Training on Responsible AI for Public Sector Legal Professionals

InnovateUS is excited to announce "Responsible AI for Public Sector Legal Professionals," two free courses which equip public sector lawyers and legal support staff to safely and responsibly use AI tools and implement AI systems to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their work while safeguarding sensitive information. Co-created with senior legal and technical leaders from state agencies, the curriculum is designed for government attorneys, legal support staff, policymakers, and compliance officers seeking to harness AI's potential while upholding professional and ethical responsibilities.

Published on May 20, 2025

DOGE Is Using AI To Centralize Government Power. It’s Time to Flip the Script.

The Trump administration’s January 20 executive order rechristening the US Digital Service as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has effectively hijacked the civic tech movement. While the US Digital Service focused on life-saving and government improvement functions, DOGE has used AI and other advanced technologies to burrow deep into administrative datasets and monopolize control. It’s time to flip the script (again) and break the government’s stranglehold on information. Rather than centralize power, let’s use AI to distribute it.

Published on May 19, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #58

HAPPY GRADUATION! In this special issue, we lead with the latest in AI and education. Beth Simone Noveck challenges Kean University honors graduates to find purpose in the AI age, offering concrete advice on how to solve public problems with AI, while more than 250 U.S. CEOs sign an open letter advocating for mandatory AI education, China issues guidelines for how students and teachers should and shouldn’t use AI. A meta-study in Nature suggests ChatGPT significantly improves student learning performance. On the governance front, House Republicans want to ban state-level AI regulation. The Copyright Office says AI training might infringe and Trump fires its director, signaling full speed ahead for AI. Read more and sign up for the latest free workshops from InnovateUS in this special Graduation Edition of AI News That Caught Our Eye!

Published on May 15, 2025

Leading with Purpose: Social Change in the AI Age: Delivered at the Kean University Honors Convocation

In our AI revolution, we face a pivotal choice between using these unprecedented cognitive tools to amplify our worst tendencies or solve humanity's greatest challenges. As New Jersey's Chief AI Strategist, I've witnessed firsthand how AI can transform public services, but becoming true "public entrepreneurs" requires more than technology—it demands purpose, partnership, problem definition, and participation to create meaningful change in an increasingly fractured world. Read my effort to offer hope to honors graduates of Kean University facing the collapse of dignity, decency, and due process.

Published on May 14, 2025

House Republicans Include AI Regulation Preemption in Budget Reconciliation Bill

House Republicans have introduced a provision in the Budget Reconciliation bill that would prevent states from regulating artificial intelligence systems for a decade. This move represents a striking departure from traditional Republican advocacy for states' rights, as the party now seeks to impose federal preemption over state-level AI safety and accountability measures. Even if it doesn't survive markup, the intent is clear: technological accelerationism above all else.

Published on May 13, 2025

Research Radar: Co-Designing AI Systems 

ETH Zurich researchers introduce "Value-Sensitive Citizen Science," a systematic framework combining design principles with citizen science to foster meaningful public participation in AI development. The paper provides a structured approach to embed community values directly into technical systems, critical as AI increasingly shapes societal outcomes.

Published on May 13, 2025

Governing AI: Fired Over Fair Use - The Bombshell AI-Training Report

President Trump’s weekend firing of the Register of Copyrights spotlights a 113-page bombshell report that brands large-scale AI training as prima-facie infringement. The Copyright Office sides with copyright owners while offering a nuanced analysis and leaving it to the market to sort out. Dive into jargon-free breakdown, political context, and a reality-check on where the Office’s analysis still misses the mark.

Published on May 12, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #57

In the news this week: Engagements with public professionals on AI – one from Dubai, one from New Jersey – showcase why to use AI to do more public listening. The White House's AI directives lack essential training provisions. While DOGE controversially hires an undergraduate to rewrite HUD regulations with AI, the Institute for Progress uses AI to summarize over ten thousand public comments about AI in government. Palantir's "ImmigrationOS" database for ICE raises mass surveillance concerns. Researchers warn that replacing federal workers with hallucination-prone AI could be "catastrophic," while innovative startups are distributing the building of advanced language models without energy-intensive data centers. AI errors are increasing with new "reasoning systems," Meanwhile, the UAE is making AI education mandatory across its K-12 public schools. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on May 8, 2025

Global AI Watch: Listening to Public Servants - What Dubai and New Jersey Teach Us About AI Readiness

Dubai's comprehensive 60-question AI survey yielded just 4% participation while New Jersey's streamlined, AI-assisted approach garnered 5,000 responses in three weeks—yet both revealed similar insights about public servants' AI readiness. This natural experiment demonstrates that effective government listening must evolve to be shorter, faster, and continuous, while measuring success beyond efficiency to include quality, transparency, and meaningful human augmentation.

Published on May 7, 2025

Research Radar: Race, Democracy, and AI - Spencer Overton Offers a Framework for a More Inclusive Digital Future

In this week's Research Radar: The future of American democracy may hinge on whether artificial intelligence supercharges racial division or helps build more inclusive participation. Law professor Spencer Overton's groundbreaking two-part analysis reveals how AI technologies simultaneously threaten to amplify racial voter suppression and deception while potentially increasing participation by communities of color—with outcomes determined not by technological inevitability but by human choices about governance, design, and accountability.

Published on May 6, 2025

People Before Platforms: Why OMB’s AI Memos Won’t Work Without Training

Last month, the White House's Office of Management and Budget released two memoranda that shift how our government will approach artificial intelligence. There's just one problem: the people tasked with implementing these ambitious directives haven't been prepared for this moment. To take the White House's vision for AI from idea to implementation, public servants need access to training that is tailored to their specific roles, grounded in real-world context, and aligned with the day-to-day realities of public service.

Published on May 5, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #56

In the news this week: Miami-Dade County released its AI strategy update, showcasing progress in implementing public-facing AI pilots while preparing for broader deployment across transportation, emergency services, and environmental management. The House passed the bipartisan "Take It Down Act" to protect victims of deepfake and revenge pornography. Trump pushes out over 200 Biden-era AI experts creating what former officials call "a waste of federal resources." California's Governor Newsom announced GenAI initiatives to reduce highway congestion and improve call centers, while Brazil's AI-powered social security app wrongly rejects legitimate claims. The UAE launches an "AI-Powered Legislative Office" as researchers propose "Digital Twin" technology to test democratic designs. Climate justice advocates raise alarms about X's Grok AI energy consumption in Memphis. New tools like StaffLink assist Congressional staffers, while reports emerge of police departments using "AI-powered undercover bots" to monitor college protesters. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on May 1, 2025

Global AI and Democracy Watch: UAE's AI-Powered Legislative Office: An Experiment Worth Watching

The UAE has announced its "Legislative Intelligence Office," promising to transform lawmaking through AI by integrating legislation, judicial rulings, and public services. While the system could potentially identify contradictions in laws and model policy impacts, serious questions remain about governance transparency, data quality, and accountability. This experiment deserves attention as legislatures worldwide struggle with information overload but we must ask whether efficiency will come at the cost of deliberation and public participation.

Published on April 30, 2025

Research Radar: Using Machine Learning to Map State Capacity

Norwegian researchers have created detailed maps of state capacity at the local level using machine learning to combine citizen surveys with geographic data across Africa. Their approach predicts government effectiveness in areas without direct measurements, offering new ways to target democracy interventions where they're most needed. This method could help identify representation gaps in communities, though challenges with data limitations and potential misuse remain.

Published on April 29, 2025

AI Governance Watch: The Executive Order on AI in Education: Progress or Paradox?

The White House's new executive order on AI education promises to prepare American students for an AI-driven future through challenges, partnerships, and teacher training. Yet these initiatives come alongside dismantling the Department of Education, cutting education funding, and reducing research grants – creating a fundamental contradiction. For AI education to succeed, we need consistent funding, teacher support, research investment, equity safeguards, and public AI governance – not just corporate partnerships.

Published on April 28, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #55

In the news this week: Anirudh Dinesh documents how India is quietly rewriting the playbook for public service by training millions of officials in AI, policy, and more with the goal of delivering more citizen-centric and future-ready public services.A collection of blog posts from Reboot Democracy explores Brazil's pioneering democratic innovations and how AI could be used to further improve, expand, and deepen engagement with citizens. The United Arab Emirates plans to use AI to aid in writing, amending, and tracking the impact of legislation; officials say that technology could make the lawmaking process faster and more precise, while skeptics question whether existing tools can deliver on the UAE’s ambitions. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on April 23, 2025

From Citizen to Senator: How Brazil is Reimagining Citizen Engagement in the Age of AI

A recent Reboot Democracy series explored how Brazil’s Federal Senate is using AI and citizen engagement to improve the lawmaking process and the opportunities and limitations of these approaches. We’ve compiled all of these posts into a collection of essays exploring Brazil's pioneering democratic innovations and how AI could be used to further improve, expand, and deepen engagement with citizens.

Published on April 23, 2025

“If Everyone Understands AI, They’ll Find a Way to Use It”: How India Is Building a Future-Ready Civil Service

India is quietly rewriting the playbook for public service—training millions of officials in AI, policy, and more through Mission Karmayogi. From clerks to top officers, a digital learning revolution is underway to deliver citizen-centric and future-ready public services. Here's how they're doing it

Published on April 20, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #54

In the news this week: Bowling Green, Kentucky used an AI-enabled platform to gather nearly 4,000 ideas from residents about priorities to include in the city’s long-term plan; the platform’s AI tools helped to surface new areas of agreement among community members, while having a human in the loop ensured that the engagement had an understanding of the local context. José Luis Martí identifies four key considerations for transforming democratic institutions from within, while a UN report looks at how AI is transforming international development. Sofia Bosch Gomez describes how the Burnes Center for Social Change and Innovate Public Schools are co-designing an AI-powered tool with hundreds of families to make individualized education plans more accessible and understandable. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on April 16, 2025

Transforming democracy from within: A Closer Look at Brazil’s Citizen Engagement Initiatives in Parliament - Part 2

Brazil’s parliamentary democratic innovations show how nations can achieve more open, inclusive, and participatory parliaments. In this post -- the second of two parts -- Pompeu Fabra University professor José Luis Martí makes the case for worshipping citizen participation and for giving deliberation the central role it deserves in our democracies today. Martí argues that while transforming our democratic institutions from within is both necessary and urgent, it is not an easy task.

Published on April 16, 2025

Designing AI With Communities: the AIEP Project

Together with hundreds of families, the Burnes Center for Social Change and Innovate Public Schools are co-designing an AI-powered tool designed to empower families to better understand and engage with their child’s individualized education plan (IEP). This free, open-source platform aims to eliminate key barriers families face when engaging with IEPs, which are often are lengthy and packed with specialized educational jargon, making them challenging to understand. By integrating community perspectives into the heart of the platform's technological design, the project aims to ensure that the AI tool reflects and serves the needs, values, and aspirations of the people who will use it.

Published on April 15, 2025

Transforming democracy from within: A Closer Look at Brazil’s Citizen Engagement Initiatives in Parliament - Part 1

Brazil’s Senate stands as a powerful example of how parliaments can use technology to make citizen engagement in lawmaking more accessible and meaningful. But to truly transform democracy from within, these innovations must be guided by clear ends and an understanding that participation is a limited resource. In this post – the first in a two-part analysis – Pompeu Fabra University professor José Luis Martí identifies four pillars of democratic innovation that may provide crucial guidance in evaluating actual public initiatives, such as those implemented in Brazil.

Published on April 14, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #53

In the news this week: Trump administration guidelines for federal agencies’ use and procurement of AI tools calls for “maximizing” US-made AI but otherwise doesn’t stray far from Biden-era guardrails. Controversy erupts over Musk's DOGE team allegedly using AI to monitor federal workers for disloyalty. A New York State court reprimanded a plaintiff for using an AI avatar to make his oral argument. Stanford HAI releases its new AI Index Report showing that AI tools are becoming more efficient and accessible while a study from Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center finds that many experts are concerned about AI’s potential to diminish empathy, independent thinking, identity, and moral judgment in the near future. Read more about AI, governance and democracy.

Published on April 10, 2025

Artificial Intelligence in the Fight Against Misinformation: A Conversation with Ed Bice

How do we tackle misinformation when traditional strategies no longer work? That was the central question in our latest Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI conversation with Ed Bice, 2024 Skoll Award Winner for Social Innovation and CEO of Meedan, a nonprofit organization focused on building tools for fact-checking, verification, and media literacy.

Published on April 9, 2025

Advancing Brazil’s Citizen Engagement with AI: Reflections and Opportunities

A recent Reboot Democracy series, co-authored by the head of the Brazilian Senate's e-Citizenship Office, describes how the Brazilian Senate is—and hopes to expand—using artificial intelligence to enable greater citizen engagement in lawmaking. In this blog post, the former director of the Hacker Lab in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies reflects on how artificial intelligence can deepen deliberative democracy in Brazil—and the challenges we still face.

Published on April 8, 2025

Brazil’s Online Consultation System is Reimagining Democracy for the Digital Age

The Brazilian Senate's Public Consultation system has gathered over 30 million yes/no votes on legislation in the past decade from 15 million registered citizens. While these inputs provide lawmakers with basic public sentiment data, AI enhancements could transform the system by creating understandable bill summaries, simulating legislation impacts, synthesizing citizen feedback beyond yes/no responses, matching bills to citizens' interests, and enabling cross-border collaboration – evolving Brazil's engagement framework into a model for participatory democracy.

Published on April 7, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #52

In the news: New Jersey's AI Task Force has pioneered a new approach to using AI to develop policy recommendations with public input, demonstrating how AI can enhance democratic participation in policymaking. An article from Spencer Overton examines how AI might advance racially inclusive democracy while acknowledging that proper legal frameworks are essential to prevent exacerbating inequalities. A survey from the Imagining the Digital Future Center reveals Americans' complex relationship with AI – with 52% of U.S. adults already using large language models despite having deep concerns about privacy and societal impacts. Meanwhile, a Luminate survey highlights Indonesia's unique vulnerability to AI-driven manipulation, with 75% of citizens believing AI-generated content can influence political views. This edition of AI News That Caught Our Eye covers news from this week while also taking a look back at some of the key stories we’ve written about at Reboot Democracy so far this year.

Published on April 3, 2025

How New Jersey's AI Task Force Used AI Agents to Develop Evidence-Based Policy Solutions with New Jersey Residents

New Jersey's State AI Task Force used AI to develop more robust recommendations faster and with the benefit of large-scale community engagement. The Task Force used the online engagement tool All Our Ideas to prioritize a set of problems to focus on and used the AI-powered toolkit Policy Synth to conduct large-scale automated web research about the problems and possible solutions. As a result of this eight-week process, New Jersey is implementing free AI skills training for all public servants and developing an AI-powered labor market monitoring system to help workers navigate career trends.

Published on April 3, 2025

Brazil's Legislative Workshops: Using AI to Strengthen Youth Engagement

The Brazilian Senate's Legislative Workshop program teaches students how to develop legislative proposals in classroom settings. In 2023, over 1,500 teachers implemented these workshops across 100 cities, with 10% of all submissions to the Senate’s e-Citizenship portal now coming from educational institutions. The Senate is exploring AI enhancements to personalize learning, facilitate collaboration between schools, create legislative simulations, provide instant feedback, and help students navigate ethical considerations – fostering a more engaged future citizenry.

Published on April 2, 2025

Branching Out: A Third Legislative Chamber for the AI Age

The proliferation and collection of large amounts of citizens’ data has led to the rise of "political machines" – AI systems used in government to make decisions around resource allocation. Political anthropologist Eduardo Albrecht argues that establishing a "Third House" – a new legislative body specifically designed to oversee the deployment and operation of political machines – could enable citizens to meaningfully engage with and oversee the AI tools used by their government.

Published on April 1, 2025

The Interactive Event: Using AI to Improve Citizen Engagement in Legislative Hearings - Insights from Brazil

Brazil's Senate has revolutionized citizen engagement, fielding 69,000 public questions across 440 committee hearings in 2024, with senators responding to 90%. Now deploying AI to select relevant questions, create accessible summaries, and potentially enable real-time transcription, the Senate aims to make democratic participation more efficient and inclusive while maintaining diverse representation.

Published on March 31, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #51

In the news this week: The Reboot Blog on why state leaders are meeting at Princeton University this June to develop practical frameworks for responsible AI use. A new series with the head of citizen engagement for the Brazilian Senate explores how artificial intelligence could enhance participatory lawmaking. The struggle to shape American AI policy intensifies with the Federation of American Scientists urging the Trump administration to cement US leadership through research investments, while tech companies actively lobby against state AI regulation. Google's Jigsaw upgrades its moderation tools for online communities. Fresh research from Harvard and Wharton reveals AI excels as a team player, while Elon University’s Lee Rainie explores our complex love-hate relationship with emerging technologies. Learn more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on March 27, 2025

States Leading the Way: Why We're Convening State Leaders to Shape America's AI Future

While federal AI policy shifts toward deregulation, my fellow state AI leaders will gather in June with researchers, entrepreneurs, and technologists at Princeton University under the auspices of the National Governors Association, the Center for Public Sector AI, the NJ AI Hub, InnovateUS and the Center for Information Technology Policy, to develop practical frameworks for responsible AI implementation in government. The two-day working conference will focus on: expanding equitable access, building public trust, strengthening governance, unlocking data responsibly, and driving innovation aligned with democratic principles.

Published on March 27, 2025

From Citizen to Senator: Artificial Intelligence and the Reinvention of Citizen Lawmaking in Brazil

Brazil's Federal Senate has pioneered four innovative citizen participation mechanisms that transform ordinary Brazilians from occasional voters into active lawmakers, with over 120,000 legislative ideas submitted and 11 million votes cast. Based on interviews with the head of the Brazilian Senate's e-Citizenship office and a leading expert on legislative innovation in Brazil, this series of four posts explores Brazil's current democratic ecosystem and future aspirations for how artificial intelligence could make citizen participation even more impactful.

Published on March 26, 2025

Our Love-Hate Relationship with Digital Technology

Many Americans are fearful in important ways about AI – particularly generative AI and large language models (LLMs) – and yet the user base is exploding. New research from the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University looks at our love-hate relationship with emerging technologies.

Published on March 24, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #50

In the news this week: A report from the Center for Democracy & Technology finds that civic tech organizations in Mexico & Taiwan effectively used AI tools to combat AI-driven information in last year’s elections while Cornell’s Frank Pasquale argues that AI poses a threat to democratic processes. Reversing course from the Biden Administration, the Trump administration instructs AI scientists to remove terms like "AI safety" and "fairness" in favor of "reducing ideological bias" and developing tools that “expand America’s global AI position.” Ivy leaguers are flooding Chinese AI company Deep Seek with applications. An NYU study finds that TikTok's algorithm skewed toward promoting Republican content during the 2024 election, and our partners at InnovateUS launch Spanish-language AI workshops. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on March 20, 2025

Bringing Citizens into the Courtroom: How Digital Technologies Can Democratize Constitutional Justice

Constitutional courts remain disconnected from the citizens they ultimately serve, but AI could transform this relationship. By using technology to translate complex legal language into accessible information, create thoughtful digital forums for diverse public input, and develop collaborative mechanisms that allow citizens and experts to contribute directly to judicial decisions, courts can evolve from isolated institutions into centers of meaningful democratic engagement.

Published on March 19, 2025

The Peacemaking Machine: Can AI Improve Democratic Deliberation?

"Democracy relies on the exchange of ideas, conversations, and deliberation. This has been true since Athenian democracy and remains crucial today—perhaps more so than ever. However, meaningful deliberation is becoming increasingly difficult." — Professor Michiel Bakker, MIT/DeepMind 

Published on March 18, 2025

AI Will Completely Transform Local Government in the Next 10 Years— If We Embrace It Effectively

AI will transform local government. To ensure these changes improve service delivery, we need to invest in training and culture change in local government. 

Published on March 14, 2025

Investing in You: Free Upskilling for Public Professionals Impacted by Federal Layoffs

Impacted by the layoffs in the federal government? We're here to help. Reboot Democracy and its partner projects Power at Work and InnovateUS have curated a set of free training resources designed to help you build new skills and knowledge to prepare for re-entering the job market, whether in the public sector or elsewhere.

Published on March 13, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #49

In the news this week: Tech groups warn that budget cuts to the National Institute of Standards and Technology could undermine US AI leadership, urging officials to preserve the agency's critical role in standards development. Meanwhile, the Brennan Center reports that while AI didn't massively disrupt 2024 elections, deepfakes and AI-generated disinformation are slowly undermining public trust, creating a landscape where truth becomes increasingly contested. Kenya's Special Envoy highlights how basic infrastructure gaps in internet and energy must be addressed before AI benefits can be equitably distributed worldwide. An Elon University study reveals AI is experiencing one of the fastest technology adoption rates in history, with Hispanic adults (66%) and Black adults (57%) more likely than White adults (47%) to use AI language tools - challenging typical tech adoption patterns. A CDT report shows workers strongly support greater transparency in workplace AI surveillance and limits on productivity monitoring that could harm mental health. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on March 13, 2025

Artificial Intelligence in the Fight Against Misinformation: A Conversation with Ed Bice

Join us on March 20 at 5 p.m. ET for Artificial Intelligence in the Fight Against Misinformation: A Conversation with Ed Bice, CEO of Meedan and 2024 Skoll Award winner. We'll explore how AI-powered tools like Meedan's "Check" platform and SynDy framework are combating misinformation across 65 countries, particularly as major platforms scale back fact-checking efforts. Learn how these innovations are protecting democratic processes in our increasingly complex information ecosystem.

Published on March 10, 2025

The Federation of American Scientists Call on OMB to Maintain the Agency AI Use Case Inventories at Their Current Level of Detail

To support continued transparency and accountability in government AI use, the Federation of American Scientists has written a letter urging OMB to maintain its detailed guidance on AI inventories. Signed by 16 organizations, the letter argues that sustained transparency is crucial to ensuring responsible AI governance, fostering public trust, and enabling industry innovation.

Published on March 6, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #48

In the news this week: Beth Simone Noveck raises concerns about President Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy, arguing the nomination reveals a national AI strategy lacking vision beyond deregulation and failing to address AI's role in government modernization. In the UK, AI assistants are helping to provide customized educational courses for incarcerated individuals, potentially addressing skills shortages and improving job prospects for ex-offenders. Technologist Audrey Tang suggests that humor may be key to better AI governance, exploring how AI can enable citizen participation and deliberation while preserving human-centered public service. Harvard Kennedy’s Ash Center published recommendations for how AI can support pro-democracy movements, calling on the civic tech community to connect AI developers with activists and create ethical guidelines and training for integrating AI into democracy work. Read more in this week’s AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on March 5, 2025

Internet Archive Book Talk - Thursday, March 13 Copyright, AI, and Great Power Competition

Join the Internet Archive on Thursday, March 13 for a thought-provoking discussion on Copyright, AI, and Great Power Competition, a new paper by Joshua Levine and Tim Hwang. The piece explores how different nations approach AI policy and copyright regulation, and also what’s at stake in the battle for technological dominance.

Published on March 5, 2025

InnovateUS March Newsletter: Investing in Public Sector Upskilling

While others work to dismantle government, we are investing in building the capacity and skills of public professionals. Read the InnovateUS March newsletter with news of free workshops on AI and administrative burden reduction, homelessness solutions, climate resilience, and digital transformation. The month also introduces "Innovamos," a Spanish-language series, and continues the "AI for Literacy Achievement" program—all sessions include certificates of completion and post-event recordings available on demand.

Published on March 5, 2025

America First, Science Last? Kratsios Hearing Signals Empty AI Strategy

Trump's pick to lead OSTP professed American AI leadership at his confirmation hearing while ignoring the dismantling of the very scientific institutions that sustain it. With no vision beyond deregulation and no defense of research funding, he failed to address—and Senators failed to ask—about the role of AI in modernizing government or the growing influence of Elon Musk in shaping federal AI policy.

Published on March 3, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #47

McKinsey explores the rise of AI in the workplace while Pew finds that half of workers (52%) say they’re worried about AI at work and Dane Gambrell argues that AI is being used as an excuse for mass layoffs in the federal government. According to OpenAI, California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York lead in student AI adoption. Governor Newsom announces "Engaged California," an AI-enabled digital democracy initiative that will collect ideas from residents about how the state can support those impacted by the LA wildfires. A paper from The GovLab examines AI's potential to transform evidence-based policymaking. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on February 27, 2025

How Tech Oligarchs Are Using AI Hype to Push Mass Layoffs

AI is part of the rationale behind the DOGE-led mass layoffs in the federal government, as well as recent job cuts by tech firms. Through collective action, workers are showing that AI's impact isn't predetermined by technology – it can be shaped through worker power.

Published on February 27, 2025

AI in the Classroom: Key Insights from the Rethinking Reading Workshop Series

A workshop series shows how AI tools are helping to transform literacy education. AI tools have a power potential to democratize quality education by providing personalized learning experiences, multilingual support and culturally responsive content, and other resources that would otherwise be unavailable to students.

Published on February 27, 2025

Research Radar: The Peacemaking Machine? How AI can help humans find common ground in democratic deliberation

Join us in-person or online on Thursday, February 27 at 4 p.m. ET for a live conversation. https://rebootdemocracy.ai/events about the "Habermas Machine" and new research from Google Deep Mind showing that AI can help groups find common ground on controversial issues. Their AI system proved more effective than human mediators at generating consensus statements while successfully preserving minority viewpoints. While this research demonstrates AI's potential to make democratic deliberation more efficient and fair and foster consensus building, it also raises questions about whether academic focus on deliberation itself, rather than practical problem-solving, best serves public needs.

Published on February 27, 2025

Understanding the Role of GenAI in Elections: A Crucial Endeavor for 2024

With over 70 national elections held in 2024, concerns around genAI’s potential to disrupt democratic integrity were at an all-time high. A new report challenges the assumption that genAI’s impact is solely negative, revealing a more complex landscape where risks coexist with opportunities for democratic innovation.

Published on February 21, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #46

This week in the news: A new report examines the promises and pitfalls of AI in 2024's global elections, highlighting how GenAI can both enhance political engagement and amplify disinformation. Oregon State Government sets a democratic precedent with its 74-point AI Action Plan emphasizing human oversight and public accountability. The Kerala High Court makes waves by incorporating AI into judicial decision-making, while cities in China are using Deep Seek to automate administrative processes. Alondra Nelson's influential Elysée Palace speech rejects the notion that AI should prioritize efficiency over democratic values and human rights. Read more in this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on February 20, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #45

This week in the headlines: Canada’s Justin Longo writes about governments using AI to deliver multilingual services while Elon Musk is developing a chatbot for the federal government called GSAi in an effort to reduce the federal workforce. Workday and Klarna are laying off workers because of AI. Yet Anthropic finds that more companies use AI to augment rather than replace jobs and a new Rutgers study finds that almost half of Americans trust AI. The week’s biggest AI news: France and Omidyar Network announce Current, a $400M fund to create AI public goods. Read more about this week's AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on February 14, 2025

Artificial Bilingualism, Public Service Delivery, and Democratic Pluralism

For Canada and other multilingual societies, advances in machine translation could provide great opportunities to improve service delivery and access to government. At the same time, we need to consider the deeper cultural values of multilingualism, and what could be lost when machines do our speaking for us.

Published on February 13, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #44

An AEI report argues that AI isn't ready to draft regulations while the EU starts enforcing theirs. OpenAI made progress with AI Agents and New Jersey unveiled its $72M AI Hub at Princeton. Code for America published an “AI Cheat Sheet” for government and Canada explores a Citizens Assembly on AI. Two new studies examined the promises and limitations of using AI to amplify and deepen public engagement in policy making. Read these stories and more in this edition of AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on February 5, 2025

Driving Product Model Development with the Technology Modernization Fund

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) currently funds multiyear technology projects to help agencies improve their service delivery. However, many agencies abdicate responsibility for project outcomes to vendors, lacking the internal leadership and project development teams necessary to apply a product model approach focused on user needs, starting small, learning what works, and making adjustments as needed. 

Published on February 4, 2025

The Peacemaking Machine: A conversation with MIT and Deepmind's Micheal Henry Tessler and Michiel A. Bakker

Join us for a conversation with MIT and Deepmind’s Michael Henry Tessler and Michiel A. Bakker on February 27 at Northeastern University. Tessler and Bakker will unveil their groundbreaking "Habermas Machine," tested with over 5,700 UK participants.

Published on February 3, 2025

Who Participates in Digital Democracy – and Who Really Benefits?

Who participates in digital democracy doesn’t always determine who benefits – what matters is whether and how governments respond. If they don’t respond, or if their response isn’t inclusive, even the broadest participation means little. AI-driven engagement must go beyond scaling participation and deliberation to address this challenge.

Published on February 3, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #43

Montgomery County’s Michael Baskin uses AI as a disaster planning partner while the Bank of Canada’s Stephanie Kelton uses AI as an economic simulation planning partner and Harvard Business School's Mitch Weiss uses AI agents for just about everything. James Pogue and Ezra Klein explore anti-modernist thinking and Silicon Valley power reshaping conservative politics. A hedge fund in China releases DeepSeek R1, and the very next day, OpenAI announces "ChatGPT for Government," designed to provide secure AI services to public institutions to keep U.S. government agencies from turning to open-source or foreign AI systems. Meanwhile the Library of Congress is helping the US Congress test bill summarization with AI. Learn in this week’s edition of AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on January 30, 2025

Ready for Wildfire: Using GenAI as a "Practice Partner" for Future-Ready Governments

To be ready for emergent futures, organizations need to shift from having planned to being prepared. Practice closes the readiness gap. Organizations and leaders that re-imagine GenAI as a "practice partner” can build adaptive, resilient organizations that are ready for what’s coming. As a “practice partner,” GenAI can run live open-ended scenario exercises for city governments with low cost, low barrier to entry, and high effectiveness.

Published on January 29, 2025

Innovation at the Library of Congress with Natalie Buda Smith

Natalie Buda Smith, Director of Digital Strategy at the Library of Congress, presents her team’s work investigating how Congress can use artificial intelligence to enhance its operations. 

Published on January 24, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #42

In a major shift in U.S. AI policy, President Trump has issued an executive order repealing President Biden's previous AI safety regulations and announced the "Stargate" initiative, a $100 billion program aimed at strengthening U.S. AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, research into smart cities continues to advance, with new studies examining how Big Data analytics and “digital twin” technology could enhance efficiency and autonomy. The AI development landscape saw increased competition this week as Chinese tech company DeepSeek released its new open-source large language model, prompting U.S. companies to reassess their strategies to maintain their lead in the AI development race. Learn about these stories and more in this edition of AI News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on January 23, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #41

New This Week! The Biden Administration's swan song on AI policy arrived this week with two executive orders - one on AI infrastructure and another on cybersecurity. Meanwhile, New Jersey broke ground with guidance on algorithmic discrimination under state law, and InnovateUS launched a free workshop series exploring AI's role in revolutionizing reading instruction. Read on for these stories and more in our latest roundup.

Published on January 17, 2025

Beyond AI Regulation: New Executive Orders Show Government Embracing AI as Infrastructure

The Biden Administration's final executive orders on AI mark a shift from regulation to embracing AI as critical infrastructure, but their framing as national security imperatives misses an opportunity to champion AI's role in strengthening democratic governance.

Published on January 17, 2025

New Jersey Issues Landmark Guidance on AI and Algorithmic Discrimination

New Jersey's Division on Civil Rights has issued clear guidance that puts organizations on notice: using AI or automated decision-making tools doesn't exempt you from anti-discrimination laws. The guidance affirms that the Law Against Discrimination applies with full force to algorithmic discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. While acknowledging AI's potential benefits in reducing bias, the guidance emphasizes that organizations remain fully accountable for discriminatory outcomes from automated tools, even if third parties developed them. The message is unambiguous - innovation must not come at the expense of civil rights.

Published on January 13, 2025

An AI Opportunity: California's Wildfire Detection System

The Palisades Fire in Los Angeles reveals both the potential and limitations of AI in public safety. Extreme conditions, including high winds, led to the fires. While they might not have been preventable, AI may be able to help us spot fires faster It is worth a closer look at whether we should make a greater investment in AI for fire safety. But this devastating blaze also demonstrates that technology alone is never enough. AI can be a powerful tool, but must be part of a comprehensive approach to protect communities.

Published on January 12, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #40: January 10, 2025

AI News This Week: Congressional rules package instructs officials in the U.S. House of Representatives to continue to integrate AI into House operations. A paper co-authored by dozens of researchers, practitioners and technologists lays out a research agenda for further developing the use of large language models to create more deliberative and healthier digital public squares. With the Trump administration poised to reshape Biden’s AI policies, experts discuss the implications for democratic governance. Read these stories and more in this week’s Reboot Democracy news on AI, democracy and governance.

Published on January 10, 2025

AI and the Future of Lawmaking: Innovation at the Library of Congress

Join us for a Zoom lecture with Natalie Buda Smith and Dr. Beth Simone Noveck exploring AI's role in legislative innovation and democracy.

Published on January 9, 2025

A New Research Agenda for AI and Civic Engagement

A new paper lays out a research agenda for further developing the use of large language models to create more deliberative and healthier digital public squares.

Published on January 8, 2025

News That Caught Our Eye #39: December 18, 2024

This special holiday edition of AI News explores how technology is transforming the festive season! This week in AI News: OpenAI launched “12 Days of OpenAI,” featuring daily updates, demos, and product announcements. Highlights include the o1 reasoning model, ChatGPT Pro business tier, and more. Switzerland’s St. Peter’s Chapel introduced "Deus in machina," an AI Jesus avatar offering biblical advice in 100+ languages. While praised for fostering dialogue among 900 visitors of diverse faiths, critics called it blasphemous. Coca-Cola faced backlash for its AI-generated holiday ads, criticized for technical flaws and “soulless” visuals. Retailers embraced AI for inventory management and hyper-personalized experiences, while many consumers are using AI recommendations to help develop their shopping lists. From AI-powered shopping assistance to multilingual translation to preemptive party monitoring, this edition of AI News looks at how emerging technologies are reshaping how we celebrate, connect, and conduct business during the holiday season.

Published on December 18, 2024

Agents for the few, queues for the many – or agents for all?

Closing the public services divide by regulating for AI’s opportunities.

Published on December 16, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #38: December 12, 2024

This Week in AI News: The state of New Jersey is training 10,000 government employees in how to responsibly use AI to deliver better public services. The New Mexico AI Consortium, a collaboration between the state’s leading national laboratories, universities, and colleges, is working to position the state as a leader in AI for national security and workforce development. At the national level, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Testing Risks of AI for National Security (TRAINS) Taskforce is investigating AI’s risks for national security. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s new restrictions on semiconductor exports to China aim to curb technological advancements with military implications, while Poland announced a $240 million AI investment to strengthen its economy and defense. This week's AI news highlights the growing intersection between artificial intelligence, national security, public engagement and public service delivery, as countries and states race to harness AI's potential while managing its risks.

Published on December 12, 2024

Smart City, Smarter Citizens with Mayor San-Cheng Chang

View the full conversation from the December 5, 2024 lecture by Mayor San-Cheng Chang, moderated by Beth Simone Noveck.

Published on December 6, 2024

In New Jersey, using AI starts with empowering employees

Beth Simone Noveck highlights New Jersey’s AI initiative, training 10,000 state employees to responsibly leverage AI. This workforce-led approach improves services, fosters innovation, and sets a model for other governments.

Published on December 4, 2024

EVENT: Join us December 5 for a conversation on smart cities with Dr. San-Cheng Chang

Join us on Thursday, December 5 at 6 p.m. ET for an inspiring conversation with Dr. San-Cheng (Simon) Chang, Mayor of Taoyuan and former Taiwanese Premier as he showcases how the city harnesses artificial intelligence to enhance governance.

Published on December 2, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #37: November 21, 2024

This Week in AI News: Frank McCourt, speaking at the Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI Lecture Series, highlighted the dangers of Big Tech's centralized control over personal data and proposed a "New Net" to prioritize user-owned identities and data portability. The National League of Cities, in partnership with Google, released a toolkit to guide local governments in adopting AI responsibly, emphasizing public engagement and tailored policies. The Texas Legislature is set to consider the Responsible AI Governance Act, which would regulate high-risk AI systems and create an AI Regulatory Sandbox Program. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security unveiled a framework for safely deploying AI in critical infrastructure sectors like energy and transportation. Additionally, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office banned generative AI tools for most tasks, citing concerns over security and bias, while exploring AI's potential for internal testing and patent searches. From local governance to federal oversight, these developments reflect ongoing efforts to balance AI innovation with ethical and secure implementation.

Published on November 21, 2024

Frank McCourt on Our Biggest Fight and Future of TikTok

McCourt was our guest in the Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI Lecture Series this week where he talked about what’s wrong with Big Tech and his hope to acquire TikTok and begin to fix the challenges.

Published on November 20, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #36: November 14, 2024

This Week in AI News: A Boston Globe letter to the editor urges Massachusetts to adopt AI tools to support legislative transparency. New Jersey’s State AI Task Force published its report recommending actions the Garden State can take to encourage the ethical and effective use of AI to improve government services and the resident experience. New reports spotlight AI’s transformative potential in philanthropy and AI’s growing influence in healthcare and justice. The UK has rolled out a new AI assurance platform to promote responsible use, while the UAE is harnessing AI to fast-track national development. From public service delivery to national security, this week’s news collects stories about the opportunities and challenges as AI becomes more deeply integrated into governance and public policy.

Published on November 14, 2024

Mass. should follow Calif.’s lead, use AI to shed light on lawmakers

Following criticism of Massachusetts' legislative opacity and a vote granting the state auditor oversight powers, my letter to the Globe argues we should adopt California's successful AI-driven legislative transparency model. The system could be replicated in Massachusetts for about $50K, potentially transforming the state from having one of the least to most transparent legislatures.

Published on November 13, 2024

EVENT: Join us November 19 to discuss “Our Biggest Fight” with Frank McCourt

Join us on November 19 at 5 p.m. ET for a conversation with Frank H. McCourt, Jr. about his new book Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age and how Big Tech created an internet that is predatory and exploitative and how we can reclaim the internet for democracy.

Published on November 12, 2024

New Jersey Releases Artificial Intelligence Task Force Report

The report details recommendations that aim to create economic opportunities for residents and businesses, encourage ethical use of AI technologies, promote equitable outcomes, support public and private workforces, and improve government services and the resident experience.

Published on November 12, 2024

Two open faculty AI governance jobs at Northeastern College of Social Sciences

Successful candidates will teach undergraduate and graduate courses and will be working on the advancement of Responsible AI/Democracy at one or more scales, including but not limited to global/diplomatic, national, municipal/local, and grassroots/community, and may have experience with the roles of the public, private, or non-profit sectors in this space. We have a special interest in those examining AI governance in the Global South

Published on November 12, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #35 November 5, 2024

It's election day, and as American voters head to the polls, we’ve curated stories focused on the ways in which AI is changing the election landscape. From bolstering transparency to tackling misinformation, welcome to this special election edition of News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on November 5, 2024

Leveraging AI to Promote Fair Elections with Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean and Kate Gage

View the full conversation from the October 30, 2024 lecture by Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean and Kate Gage.

Published on November 3, 2024

Audrey Tang: Alignment Assemblies can enable us to govern AI collaboratively.

Taiwan's first Digital Minister describes how collective intelligence can be harnessed to strengthen democratic governance and build a collaborative approach to global AI safety.

Published on November 1, 2024

Building Worker Power in the AI Age: A Blueprint from DOL

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued new recommendations to guide employers and tech developers on implementing AI in ways that enhance rather than undermine worker power. These guidelines provide the first comprehensive roadmap for ensuring AI serves as a tool for expanding worker power and improving workers’ lives and economic security.

Published on October 31, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #34 October 31, 2024

This Week in AI News: The U.S. Department of Labor released a blueprint to empower workers in the AI age, recommending transparency, employee input, and protection from AI surveillance, alongside training to ensure AI enhances job security and fair wages. The Financial Times highlighted AI's growing role in government, shifting focus from fears of “Big Robot Rebellions” to ethical concerns around AI-driven decision-making in finance, education, and law enforcement. A new report emphasized Big Tech's influence in AI policy-making, calling for more diverse voices, especially from startups innovating in health and infrastructure. Globally, AI Safety Institutes are emerging to set standards, while Hong Kong released guidelines for fintech, and Albuquerque, N.M., formed a working group for local AI policy. From ethical oversight to workplace rights, this week’s News That Caught Our Eye underscores AI's expanding influence across society.

Published on October 31, 2024

EVENT: Join us October 30: Kate Gage and Jeanine Abrams McLean on "Leveraging AI to Promote Fair Elections"

The Burnes Center for Social Change and The Governance Lab, in collaboration with the Institute for Experiential AI, invite you to the next lecture in our series: Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI, on Wednesday, October 30, at 5 p.m. ET! This upcoming session features Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean, President of Fair Count, and Kate Gage, a leading expert in the intersection of technology and political innovation.

Published on October 28, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #33: October 24, 2024

This Week in AI News: The U.S. Department of Labor introduced a new roadmap designed to ensure AI enhances job quality while safeguarding worker rights. A recent study demonstrated how AI can facilitate common ground in democratic discussions, highlighting its potential to reduce division. In California, a survey revealed diverse public opinions on AI’s impact, with optimism higher among Black and Asian Americans compared to other groups. Meanwhile, Stanford's RegLab created an AI tool to quickly find and remove racial restrictions from millions of property records. From workplace innovation to global governance efforts, this week’s News That Caught Our Eye showcases AI's broadening role in shaping society.

Published on October 24, 2024

The Center for Public Sector AI's Comprehensive Guide to State and Local AI Policies

State and local governments are quickly adopting AI, but they need clear, organized guidance for responsible implementation. The Center for Public Sector AI has created a resource to help. By compiling AI-related policies, laws, and executive orders, this tool simplifies decision-making for officials, allowing them to embrace innovation while ensuring ethical use and maintaining public accountability.

Published on October 24, 2024

The Dark Side of Progress: Harari's Grim AI Predictions in Nexus

Nexus offers a sweeping historical exploration of information networks, illustrating how technology has shaped and reinforced power dynamics. Harari’s pessimistic outlook on AI highlights its potential dangers but falls short in proposing solutions. The book's vivid historical examples engage, yet its lack of practical guidance leaves readers wanting more.

Published on October 21, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #32: October 17, 2024

This Week in AI News: The U.S. military is deploying the AI-powered Maven Smart System to assist in disaster relief for Hurricane Helene, while Colorado debates the use of AI facial recognition in schools, balancing safety and privacy concerns. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is exploring an AI governance framework to improve services for veterans, and a new memorandum (M-24-18) from the White House's Office of Management and Budget outlines guidelines for the responsible acquisition of AI by federal agencies. Globally, Kenya has launched the Africa Centre of Competence for Digital and AI Skills to drive digital transformation across the continent. From AI-driven disaster response to educational advancements, this week's News That Caught Our Eye dives into AI's expanding influence on politics and governance.

Published on October 17, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #31: October 10, 2024

This week in AI news: A new research study out of Ireland looks at how AI and humans can combine their strengths to solve complex problems. Meanwhile, California's new AI law targeting election-related deepfakes was blocked by a federal judge, citing First Amendment concerns. From a new AI powered app for flood tracking during hurricane Helene to Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry recognized pioneering AI research, this week's News That Caught Our Eye dives into AI's expanding influence on politics and governance.

Published on October 10, 2024

How Singapore’s Policymakers Are Experimenting With AI to Make Data-Driven Decisions

Sense is a powerful AI-driven tool enabling Singapore's public service officers to make data-driven decisions effortlessly by querying complex datasets in natural language, revolutionizing the accessibility of government data.

Published on October 8, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #30: October 3, 2024

This week in AI news: California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a controversial AI safety bill, citing concerns about hindering innovation, while a Stanford-led project argued for rethinking institutional checks and balances in the AI age. From new bipartisan AI legislation for pandemic preparedness to AI-powered inclusive hiring tools, this week's News That Caught Our Eye dives into AI's expanding influence on politics and governance.

Published on October 3, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye: September 25, 2024

It’s UN General Assembly week and there are lots of stories in this week’s news on international collaboration: The U.S. Department of State is collaborating with eight companies to launch a “Global Inclusivity Initiative on AI”, and Rwanda and Singapore are launching a pioneering AI 'Playbook' for small states. From the OECD and UN's efforts to guide AI governance to the UAE's strategic AI partnerships amid global tensions, this week’s edition of News That Caught Our Eye delves into the pivotal role of AI in shaping global policies, alliances, and governance.

Published on September 25, 2024

Definitions, digital, and distance: on AI and policymaking

Human decisions will drive the deployment of technology in policymaking, for good and ill. Better policymaking should make lives better for humans, which is why we should listen to them.

Published on September 23, 2024

The Reboot Democracy News that Caught Our Eye Podcast: Experimenting with NotebookLM

AI is revolutionizing the way we learn, offering new ways to engage with content. One of those exciting advancements is the ability to transform written digital content into coherent and professional audio formats. 

Published on September 20, 2024

Building a More Public AI Ecosystem: Insights from Lawrence Lessig

Published on September 19, 2024

The 2024 Computation + Journalism Symposium

Join Northeastern's Internet Democracy Initiative for the 2024 Computation + Journalism Symposium!

Published on September 19, 2024

Could Congress Leverage AI to Help Restore Faith in US Democracy?

With a commitment to embracing technology and leveraging constituent data, Congress has a promising opportunity to modernize its operations and rejuvenate democracy, fostering greater engagement and trust in the political process.

Published on September 19, 2024

Audrey Tang and Beth Noveck on Digital Infrastructure for Civic Participation

In a Q&A with New America, Audrey Tang and Beth Simone Noveck discuss the international landscape of civic participation, and the digital infrastructure we need to support collaborative, inclusive, and democratic communities.

Published on September 19, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #28: September 18, 2024

In this week's news: AI pioneers call for global safeguards against potential risks of advanced technologies, while governments worldwide ramp up efforts to integrate and regulate AI. From new policies in local government to Brazil’s historic AI funding plan, and AI’s growing role in tech infrastructure, this edition of News That Caught Our Eye explores key developments in AI’s impact on governance, innovation, and democracy.

Published on September 18, 2024

Call for Abstracts: Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms

Through this Friday, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University is inviting submissions for a spring 2025 symposium focused on how institutions can prepare for the potential impacts of AI on democratic freedoms.

Published on September 17, 2024

California's Digital Democracy: Using AI to Enhance Legislative Transparency

View the full conversation from the Sept 12, 2024 lecture by David Lesher with remarks from Senator Andrew Zwicker

Published on September 16, 2024

EVENT: Join us on September 12 for a conversation with David Lesher on "Using AI to Foster Legislative Transparency"

The Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI lecture series returns on September 12 with David Lesher, a veteran California journalist and state policy expert and the creator of Digital Democracy.

Published on September 9, 2024

Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI Lecture Series Returns on September 12

The Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI lecture series, which kicks off this Thursday, brings together changemakers from a variety of fields to explore how AI can offer fresh solutions to the challenges facing modern democratic governance.

Published on September 9, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #27: September 9, 2024

In the news this week: US seizes Russian websites used in bid to influence elections; how AI is transforming farming; and the latest stories about technology companies integrating AI in education. Learn more in this edition of News That Caught Our Eye, our weekly list of stories about AI and democracy.

Published on September 9, 2024

FCC Proposes New Rules for AI-Generated Content in Political Ads

Under the proposed rules, broadcasters would be required to disclose instances where AI-generated content is used in political advertisements that appear on television and on the radio. 

Published on September 5, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #26: August 30, 2024

Our news roundup this week explores how the California AI bill is dividing silicon valley with many tech giants calling it a threat, how police have begun using AI to write incident reports, Colorado county employing AI for emergency communications, and much more. It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on August 30, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #25: August 21, 2024

In the news this week: New insights from state IT leaders and public servants on how AI may (or may not) transform government agencies' work; how USAID and DARPA are experimenting with AI to solve problems; and the latest stories about AI-driven misinformation targeting elections and how platforms and states are responding. Learn more in this edition of News That Caught Our Eye, our weekly list of stories about AI and democracy.

Published on August 21, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #24: August 14, 2024

This week’s stories delve into AI's role in policymaking, from reshaping public-interest investment strategies to modernizing Congress to improving economic forecasting. Other stories cover new efforts to use AI to automate scientific discovery and social science experiments. Learn more in this edition of News That Caught Our Eye, our curated list of the latest research and news around AI and democracy.

Published on August 14, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #23: August 7, 2024

Our news roundup this week explores how public institutions are using AI to support public defenders in Kentucky, bolster training for public servants in California, and help New York City improve services from transportation to education. Other stories look at what governments need to do to guard against the risks of AI’s applications in the UK’s healthcare system, Spain’s gender violence program, and to rein in election misinformation spread by Twitter's chatbot. Read these stories and more in our latest edition of News That Caught Our Eye.

Published on August 7, 2024

Philosophy can help us to understand AI's impact on democracy

OpenAI anticipates “superintelligence” – AI surpassing human abilities – this decade and is dedicating resources to align AI with human values. This move highlights the need to prevent AI from undermining democracy and emphasizes the role of philosophy, social sciences, and public input in shaping AI’s impact. Explore how AI could shape our democratic landscape.

Published on August 6, 2024

A New Resource For How Parliaments Can Use AI

A new resource from the Inter-Parliamentary Union collects AI use cases aimed at lawmaking bodies. While the collection showcases how AI can help parliaments complete existing administrative tasks more efficiently, it could be strengthened by adding ideas for how AI can support lawmakers in conducting large-scale online engagements with constituents, and examples of how legislative research services can leverage AI to improve evidence-gathering and evaluation.

Published on August 1, 2024

How AI chatbots could improve civic engagement in the 2024 election

Election officials have the authority and responsibility to ensure voters have access to the best possible tools for making informed decisions. So why isn’t AI part of the equation?

Published on August 1, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #22: July 31, 2024

In the news this week: New research insights on how we can better understand and address democratic backsliding, how scientists are using AI to improve weather forecasting and the detection of wildfires, Brazil’s $4 billion plan to build the nation’s AI industry, and much more. It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on July 31, 2024

AI and You: How New Jersey Is Using Collective Intelligence to Get Smarter on AI

The GovLab is supporting New Jersey’s AI Task Force in using the online engagement tool All Our Ideas to ask workers for their opinions on how AI will impact the Garden State’s workforce.

Published on July 30, 2024

Using AI? Learn How, Says the ABA to Lawyers in a Formal Opinion

Yesterday the American Bar Association published a formal opinion, declaring that under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, lawyers using generative AI have a “duty of competence” to develop an “understanding of the evolving nature of GAI.” This is why InnovateUS is launching a new GenAI for Public Lawyers course this fall. My takeaway on the opinion: the ABA is recognizing the benefits of GAI but is requiring lawyers to: 1) Obtain truly informed consent from the client, explaining all the risks involved, 2) Ensure no confidential information is input into a GAI system, 3)Thoroughly verify all outputs for accuracy, and 4) Use GAI for general tasks that don't involve specific client information.

Published on July 30, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #21: July 24, 2024

This week in the news: Vice President Kamala Harris's record on AI, how New Orleans is using AI to triage 911 calls, why the ACLU is opposing regulation on deepfakes, and much more. It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on July 24, 2024

InnovateUS launches Responsible AI for Public Professionals: Using Generative AI at Work

InnovateUS launches the "Responsible AI for Public Professionals" course, enabling public sector employees to use generative AI responsibly. This free, self-paced course covers drafting documents, analyzing data, brainstorming, and communication.

Published on July 11, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #20: June 25th, 2024

This week’s edition explores the integration of AI in education with New Jersey's “AI moonshot,” AI in nuclear arsenals, regulatory concerns among tech giants' investments, and Colorado's new AI law aimed at fairness and bias prevention. In our 20th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on June 25, 2024

Mitchell Weiss: What will AI do in government? A lot.

Author and Professor at Harvard Business School, Mitchell Weiss — self-described fan of metaphors — blogs a vision for AI as a multi-tasking, many-handed "Chief of Stuff" within government services.

Published on June 25, 2024

NEW BOOK: Why AI Undermines Democracy and What to Do about It

Mark Coeckelbergh's "Why AI Undermines Democracy and What to Do about It" offers a philosophical critique of AI's impact on democratic principles. The book argues that the concentration of power in tech companies and governmental use of AI pose risks to democracy, potentially leading to digital totalitarianism. While light on novel solutions, it provides a concise overview of common concerns in AI ethics literature and calls for increased democratic input in AI design and global governance. The book serves as an accessible entry point for those new to the topic, offering a valuable, if pessimistic, perspective on AI's challenges to democracy.

Published on June 24, 2024

Listening to the Unheard: Mexico's Unprecedented Effort to Rebuild Trust in its Justice System

GovLab Fellow Dino Cantu recounts her experience creating The Encuentro Nacional para una Agenda de Seguridad y Justicia which aims to address Mexico's judicial system's deep-rooted issues by facilitating collaborative forums.

Published on June 10, 2024

Listen: Building Tech That Doesn’t Suck. The Lever Podcast Talks with Beth Noveck about the IRS Direct File Pilot

The latest episode of The Lever podcast, "America’s Biggest Tax Scam May Finally End," explores government's technology capabilities and advocates for collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors to prioritize public interests in technology development.

Published on June 7, 2024

New Jersey Co-Creates AI Strategy With Public-Sector Staff

Throughout the month of June, New Jersey will be the first state to survey its public workforce about AI. We are asking executive branch employees from about 28 agencies to share their views on AI. The survey asks about employees’ current awareness and use of generative AI tools, interest in learning more, preferred training formats, top use cases and key concerns to address. By directly engaging workers up front, using their responses to inform training and upskilling for staff, New Jersey aims to co-create an AI strategy that supports and empowers our public professionals to serve residents.

Published on June 5, 2024

The GovLab Launches Report About New AI Problem-Solving Toolkit

Co-authored with Citizens Foundation, the report describes a novel problem solving method that combines the collective wisdom of human experts and the computational power of AI agents to enhance and scale up public problem-solving processes.

Published on June 4, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #19: June 4th, 2024

This week’s edition covers OpenAI's efforts to counter foreign influence operations, the role of AI in California’s education and government sectors, and the public’s growing support for AI in government services. Also, Google’s new Overviews feature faces a rocky rollout; media organizations push back. In our 19th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on June 4, 2024

New InnovateUS Course – “What Works: Fast Field Scanning with AI”

The free online course from our partner project equips learners with skills for getting smarter, faster from data from documents and people – while also providing hands-on advice for using generative AI to improve the learning process.

Published on June 3, 2024

Listen: In “The Road to Accountable AI,” Kevin Werbach helps listeners navigate AI hype and implementation

In his podcast, Wharton’s Kevin Werbach interviews experts and executives building accountable AI systems, to shine a light on effective, responsible, and safe implementation.

Published on June 3, 2024

The AI Echo Chamber: New Paper on AI and Epistemic Risk

NEW PAPER: John Wihbey argues that as AI increasingly mediates the information domains that shape public knowledge, it risks producing an "epistemically anachronistic" public sphere, stifling the emergence of new ideas and limiting democratic deliberation. While AI has the potential to enhance our informational ecosystem, he argues, there preserving space for organic human insight and discourse.

Published on June 3, 2024

Research Radar: What can we learn from how algorithmic news recommenders impact political agendas in Denmark?

Danish researchers conducted a large-scale experiment with 80k people during the country’s general election in 2022. Algorithmic sorters on news websites impacted both the quality, exposure, and diversity of news presented, raising concerns about political agenda-setting.

Published on May 31, 2024

Research Radar: Breaking Language Barriers: EU's iDEM Project Harnesses AI to Empower Marginalized Voices in Democracy

New Horizon-funded EU research project aims to create more inclusive and participatory democratic deliberation through the use of AI-enabled text simplification. The research showcases the positive potential for using AI to strengthen democracy. In my view, the importance of the work lies in the rejection of outdated and discriminatory notions of "citizen competence" that have deemed the public incapable of effective participation.

Published on May 30, 2024

GovTech: Where to Start With AI? Cities and States Offer Use Cases

GovTech's Julia Edinger writes: "Building an AI program is a daunting proposition, but government has to start somewhere. From strengthening cybersecurity to improving 311, a handful of early adopters are finding safe and practical uses."

Published on May 29, 2024

Plus Ça Change: Is a Public Internet But a Dream

In this 1999 article, I wrote for L'Humanité, I identified the emerging contradictions between the democratic promise of new media technologies and the realities of information overload, corporate surveillance, and the erosion of public discourse. Twenty-five years later, the need for slow deliberation, diverse perspectives, and inclusive participation in shaping a future in which technology serves to enhance, rather than undermine, our humanity and democratic values, still rings true.

Published on May 28, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #18: May 28th, 2024

EU data privacy experts disagree on ChatGPT, while the VA deploys AI to better support veterans. At the city level, Colorado Springs and San Jose test out new use-cases for AI in improving constituents’ information access. In our 18th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on May 28, 2024

Interview with Orly Lobel on "AI and the Future of Workplace Democracy" for Reboot Democracy

View the full conversation from this interview with Orly Lobel, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and the Director of the Center for Employment and Labor Law.

Published on May 22, 2024

“Bot Beat” – a new, independent podcast about the journalists experimenting with AI

The Burnes Center’s Jay Kemp announces Bot Beat, an independent podcast tracking the stories of journalists harnessing AI in their reporting. They’ll keep you updated on possibilities & pitfalls for AI in reporting – keying you in on how these emerging tools could affect your work.

Published on May 20, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #17: May 20th, 2024

Audrey Tang features in TIME, AI continues to eat large amounts of power, and OpenAI and Google step on some toes. In our 17th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on May 20, 2024

Senate Working Group Proposes $32 Billion to Spur AI Innovation: A Laundry List and Sparse Attention to Strengthening Democracy

This week, the Senate AI Working Group released a report calling for a wide range of AI investments in AI research to help the United States improve its competitiveness with China.

Published on May 16, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #16: May 16th, 2024

Healthcare policymakers from HHS to Congress consider responsible AI incorporation into the existing care process. Additionally, the U.S. and China prepare to talk AI concerns in Geneva, the UK makes one of its evaluation tools open-source, and TikTok gets transparent with creators’ AI-generated content. In our 16th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on May 16, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #15: May 8th, 2024

While OpenAI and Microsoft dive deeper into election and government security work, Congress continues to take a tentative approach to drafting regulations. Furthermore, new grants fund AI research and the EU publishes the final text of its adopted AI Act. In our 15th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on May 8, 2024

Countering Election Subversion: 27 Strategies to Build a Stronger Democracy

The GovLab and the Burnes Center for Social Change developed these recommendations, with the support of Democracy Fund Voice, as a roadmap for philanthropic or government organizations to make urgently-need investments to combat attempts to subvert and cast doubt on the fairness of U.S. elections

Published on May 3, 2024

UPCOMING ONLINE EVENT: Join Orly Lobel on May 16 for "AI and the Future of Workplace Democracy"

The Reboot Democracy in the Age of AI lecture series welcomes Orly Lobel on Thursday, May 16th to discuss her book: The Equality Machine - Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future.

Published on May 2, 2024

Senator Booker Introduces AI Grand Challenges Act

Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) announced the introduction of the AI Grand Challenges Act calling for NSF to create $1 million dollar prize-backed challenge competitions designed to solve public problems with AI.

Published on April 30, 2024

Research Radar: What can we learn from Brazil, Singapore and Canada on ethical AI procurement for government use?

The authors highlight “three key pitfalls around expertise, risk frameworks and transparency, that can decrease the efficacy of regulations aimed at government AI use.” They also suggest avenues for improvement.

Published on April 30, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #14: April 30th, 2024

From national security guidelines to the new AI Grand Challenges Act, highlights of this week’s Rebooting Democracy news include Ohio using AI to streamlining its administrative code and insights into urban cooling efforts in Raleigh. We also delve into legal actions by the ACLU and discussions on AI's future roles in government and the private sector. In our 14th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy. If you have an item that we should include in this news download, or a source we should review for future items, please email me at [email protected].

Published on April 30, 2024

Reviving Our Inner Child: 'Co-Intelligence' and the Promise of AI as a Creative Catalyst

In my review of Ethan Mollick's "Co-Intelligence," I delight in the author's imaginative conversations with AI personas, reminiscent of invisible childhood friends who inspire creativity. I appreciate Mollick's engaging exploration of AI as a thinking companion. Check out my review of Co-Intelligence.

Published on April 25, 2024

Steven Berlin Johnson on How to Use Google’s AI-Powered Research and Writing Tools in Your Work in Government

In a live training for InnovateUS, our partner training program in AI, data and innovation skills for public professionals, best-selling author of thirteen books Steven Johnson introduces NotebookLM, Google's free AI-powered research and writing tool. Johnson explains how NotebookLM's "source-grounding" approach allows users to navigate and explore complex documents or archives of information and discussions uses for government.

Published on April 24, 2024

Interview with Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang for Reboot Democracy

View the full conversation, including a table of contents for topics, from this interview with Audrey Tang, the first Digital Minister of Taiwan and author of Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy.

Published on April 24, 2024

News That Caught Our Eye #13: April 23rd, 2024

From the UAE to Buffalo, New York, this week’s news download on AI, democracy and governance covers the power grid, the copyright office, and data protection, and more. In our 13th edition, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on April 23, 2024

Watch C-SPAN Book Talk with Jonathan Metzl and Beth Simone Noveck at the Harvard Book Store

In his new book, Metzl reckons both with the long history of distrust of public health and the larger forces that allow mass shootings to occur on a near daily basis in America. Beth Simone Noveck finds parallels to doomerist narratives about AI from tech leaders.

Published on April 18, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #12: April 17th, 2024

The Supreme Court of Singapore and Supreme Court of India hold a joint conference on technology, with fascinating speeches on AI and the rule of law. Also, everyone from the federal government to journalists to private organizations tries to figure out how to detect audio deep fakes – and public sector workers struggle to use AI in service delivery. In the 12th edition of our weekly news download, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on April 17, 2024

Taiwanese Digital Minister Audrey Tang’s “Job Description” — a guiding star for generative AI

As Taiwan’s first-ever Digital Minister, Audrey Tang was asked to write their own job description – and wrote a poem. In this opinion piece, Jay Kemp argues the “job description” is also a guide for using generative AI to enhance digital democracy and heal online deliberation.

Published on April 12, 2024

New Jersey is turning to AI to improve the job search process

MyCareer.NJ.Gov exemplifies the critical role that public entities can play in harnessing AI for public good. As commercial websites and social media platforms proliferate, often spreading misinformation, it is increasingly important for trusted public institutions to provide reliable, data-driven resources. By using AI to empower informed decision-making, New Jersey is setting an example for other states to follow.

Published on April 11, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #11: April 9th, 2024

AI use-cases in government are all over the news this week — while the UN General Assembly, the Energy Secretary, and researchers explore the positives, Israel and Elon Musk show us the dark side of AI’s potential. Plus, check out some new studies released on generative AI for policy advising, conspiracy unraveling, and issue-based debating. In the 11th edition of our weekly news download, we continue to highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on April 9, 2024

Upskilling Your Workforce for the Age of AI

While there is a great deal of apprehension about AI and its impact on the workforce, public servants who embrace innovation and continuous learning can use the technology to deliver more efficient and effective services that better meet the needs of the residents they serve. Read a transcript of Rick Maher, Seth Harris, and Beth Simone Noveck on this conversation.

Published on April 5, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #10: April 2nd, 2024

White House guidance for the use of AI by federal agencies is out! Also, new pro-democracy tools, the energy transition, and ethicizing the news ecosystem… It’s the 10th (!) edition of our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on April 2, 2024

New White House Guidance on AI: Strong on Skills, Short on Public Engagement

The White House Office of Management and Budget recently released final guidance on the use of AI by federal agencies, emphasizing the need to build AI skills and expertise within the government workforce. While the memo requires agencies to solicit public input on AI systems that could impact rights or safety, it misses the opportunity to provide specific guidance on how AI itself could be used to better engage citizens. Realizing the full potential of AI in government will require a more fundamental shift towards viewing public engagement as an essential tool for designing AI that serves the public interest.

Published on March 31, 2024

The Internet We Deserve with Tom Wheeler

View the full conversation with Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and current fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Harvard Kennedy School, about the adoption of net neutrality, privacy protections for consumers, and increased cybersecurity. Moderated by John Battelle, Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change and a Professor of Practice of Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media and Design.

Published on March 26, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #9: March 25th, 2024

This week in the news: generative AI on the Hill, at the campaign front lines, and in higher education! It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on March 25, 2024

AI and the Future of Lawmaking with Marci Harris of POPVOX

View the full conversation with Marci Harris, founder and CEO of POPVOX.com and the Executive Director of the nonprofit POPVOX Foundation about the future of lawmaking in the age of artificial intelligence. Moderated by Beth Simone Noveck, professor at Northeastern University, where she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change and its partner project, The GovLab.

Published on March 21, 2024

Quick Update: Singapore Trains Workers for the AI Future

In its latest budget, Singapore announced that it will provide a subsidy for all workers over 40 to go back to school.

Published on March 20, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #8: March 18th, 2024

This week in the news: the EU AI Act, India changes its mind (again) and Gemini won’t answer your election questions! It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on March 18, 2024

Let AI remake the whole U.S. government, with human ingenuity alongside data

Tyrangiel's important piece, "Let AI remake the whole U.S. government" in The Washington Post highlights the potential of AI to transform government services by providing efficient, cost-effective solutions for areas like veterans benefits and healthcare. While he advocates for AI's use in gaining real-time insights to improve service delivery, he fails to note the importance of human-centered design as the fundamental cornerstone of more agile governance. AI is a tool to support, not substitute, human expertise in government.

Published on March 14, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #7: March 14th, 2024

This week in the news: the Pulitzers, the State of the Union, and International Women’s Day! It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on March 14, 2024

Digital Mirror to Our Deliberation

The ability for AI transcription to lay bare how we talk to one another can help us to democratize formal as well as informal conversations, creating new opportunities to reveal biases and bad behavior and, when used well, create incentives for better deliberation. The self-reflection enabled by AI has the potential to revolutionize all forms of group conversation from parliaments to town halls to boardrooms with AI serving as a mirror to our interactions, helping us to instill deliberative processes that are fairer, more inclusive and more productive.

Published on February 28, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #6: February 27th, 2024

An interesting week in the news: Gemini stumbles, Reddit makes waves, India confronts Google, and Sal Khan confronts his own obsolescence. It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on February 27, 2024

Guns, Narratives, and AI

In this post, I explore how the same government-is-the-problem-not-the-solution narrative about guns has direct parallels to the conversation unfolding about artificial intelligence. To reduce gun violence, advocates need to take on the liberty argument, argues Jonathan Metzl in What We've Become. Similarly, if we want to realize the benefits of AI, we have to address and debunk the increasingly pervasive and pernicious doomerist narrative that is creating a false antinomy between AI risks and AI ethics.

Published on February 26, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #5: February 20th, 2024

This week in the news: Sora’s launch, gun control deep fakes, and AI updates from Estonia to Singapore. It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on February 20, 2024

AI and Democracy’s First Principles with Danielle Allen and A.C. Grayling

View the full conversation with Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and A.C. Grayling CBE is the Principal of Northeastern University London, and its Professor of Philosophy. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, including the forthcoming Who Owns the Moon?: In Defence of Humanity’s Common Interests in Space.

Published on February 15, 2024

To Fight Extremism and Hate Speech Online, Invest in AI-Powered Content Moderation

In an year marked by escalating online hate, a presidential election, and the dismantling of online safety teams, the adoption of AI-powered solutions could be pivotal. Can advanced AI provide the nuanced, scalable defense our digital communities desperately need against the tide of extremism and disinformation?

Published on February 15, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #4: February 13th, 2024

This week in the news: semiconductor chips, Pakistani elections, and a lot of updates from the federal space. It’s our weekly news download, where we highlight the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on February 13, 2024

The Arms Race in Assistive AI

The advice "Write the first draft you want someone to send" is now being applied to legislative processes, where the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) drafts model bills benefiting corporations. Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders highlight in the MIT Tech Review how AI could amplify this practice, allowing lobbyists to analyze US law comprehensively, draft legislation more efficiently, and potentially infiltrate law-making at various levels. While AI presents opportunities for both exploitation and improvement in legislative processes, the need for investment in these technologies to support quality lawmaking and public accountability is critical, facing the challenge of misuse by those seeking to manipulate legislative outcomes for private gain.

Published on February 8, 2024

NEW REPORT: Brennan Center on AI and Congress

As part of its series on AI and Democracy, the Brennan Center for Justice published a new essay on AI and Congress, covering both the risks and, importantly, illustrating the opportunities to leverage AI to "make legislatures more effective, more representative, more efficient, and more transparent." The time to act is now.

Published on February 8, 2024

How AI can help reshape Congress

By embracing responsible use of AI and safeguarding security and privacy, Congress has the opportunity both to modernize and speed up its operations but also to deepen its connection with the American people, ensuring that the legislative process becomes more transparent, efficient, and, above all, responsive to the people Congress serves.

Published on February 6, 2024

The Internet We Deserve with Professor Larry Lessig of Harvard Law School

View the full conversation with Larry Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, founder of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and Equal Citizens and a founding board member of Creative Commons, about intellectual property in the Internet era. Moderated by John Battelle, Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change and a Professor of Practice of Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media and Design.

Published on February 6, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #3: February 6th, 2024

A big week in the news! Read further for this week on the stories, research, and innovations that illuminate how AI is impacting governance and democracy.

Published on February 6, 2024

Scandal at the Post Office: Technology on Tap, Justice on Top

Is human oversight the antidote to technology overreliance that it's made out to be? Potentially, but the Horizon scandal plastering British headlines right now illuminates the dangers of misaligned human priorities.

Published on January 30, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #2: January 30th, 2024

Week #2 of our weekly news download. We created this resource to highlight the updates, research, and change-making that caught our eye, stories related to ways in which AI is transforming governance and deepening democracy.

Published on January 30, 2024

“AI and the Media” with Jill Abramson and Ethan Zuckerman

View the full conversation with Jill Abramson, Northeastern Professor and Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow and former executive editor of the New York Times, and Ethan Zuckerman, associate professor of public policy, information and communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure.

Published on January 25, 2024

Rebooting Democracy - News That Caught Our Eye #1: January 22nd, 2024

Welcome to our weekly news download. We created this resource to highlight the updates, research, and change-making that caught our eye, stories related to ways in which AI is transforming governance and deepening democracy.

Published on January 22, 2024

POPVOX releases new report on AI and legislatures

POPVOX Foundation, which supports research, innovation and initiatives that promote better and more engaged governance, especially lawmaking, has released a pathbreaking new report on AI and legislatures.

Published on January 20, 2024

“How the History of the Internet Could Inform the Future of Democracy and AI” with Vinton Cerf and John Battelle

View the full conversation with Vint Cerf, co-creator of the Internet and Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, about the impact of artificial intelligence on democracy. Moderated by John Battelle, Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change and a Professor of Practice of Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media and Design.

Published on January 18, 2024

Full Testimony: Beth Simone Noveck on harnessing AI to improve government services and customer experience

Despite having funded the creation of the Internet, the public sector lagged in its adoption. Now government can lead in the use of artificial intelligence for public good. Because of its power to sort, organize, and summarize vast amounts of data and text, AI has the potential to make government more effective, efficient, and responsive.

Published on January 10, 2024

How AI could restore our faith in democracy

AI is making it faster and easier to identify innovative strategies to combat election-related violence and election subversion and strengthen our democracy.

Published on January 9, 2024

Crisis Collective Intelligence Course

The Collective Crisis Intelligence course comprises coaching videos from leading experts who have successfully responded to a crisis using technology. A joint effort involving fifteen institutions, it was designed in response to COVID-19, but lessons learned and equally applicable to other disasters. Each module provides powerful examples of how to use collective action during times of crises. The chatbot and other projects described are now even easier and cheaper to create. Access the free course here: https://covidcourse.thegovlab.org/. 

Published on December 20, 2023

Conversing with Congress: An Experiment in AI-Enabled Communication

My take on a pioneering and important new study that sheds light on the practical potential and the urgent need to use AI to create more meaningful constituent communication and rebuild trust in Congress. #congress #artificialintelligence #chatbot

Published on December 12, 2023

Combining Human and Machine Intelligence for Enhanced Democracy with Sir Geoff Mulgan

On Thursday, November 16, the Burnes Center for Social Change and the GovLab hosted Sir Geoff Mulgan,  Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL), for a thought-provoking lecture on “Combining Human and Machine Intelligence to Enhance Democracy” as part of the "Rebooting Democracy in the Age of AI" series. Mulgan discussed the challenges facing contemporary democracies and proposed innovative solutions to steer them into a more responsive and effective future.

Published on December 6, 2023

PODCAST: How the UK Collective Intelligence Lab is Using AI for Public Engagement in Policymaking

In the latest episode of The GovLab's Collective Intelligence Podcast, Prateek Buch and Brendan Arnold from the UK Government's Policy Lab talk about how they are using AI-enabled engagement via the Pol.is platform to improve policymaking.

Published on December 6, 2023

NJ PBS Biz Beats Interview on the NJ AI Task Force

In an interview with Raven Santana on NJ Biz Beat, we discussed the creation of New Jersey's AI Task Force, focusing on the responsible use of generative AI to improve government, create new jobs and advance literacy and equity, and how to balance the benefits and the risks.

Published on December 5, 2023

Navigating the New Frontier: Generative AI in Gov

The cautious yet optimistic adoption of generative AI by cities like Boston, and states like New Jersey and California, signals a significant shift in the public sector landscape. The journey from skepticism to the beginnings of strategic implementation reflects a growing recognition of the transformative potential of AI for public good. From enhancing public engagement through sentiment analysis and accessibility to optimizing government operations and cybersecurity, generative AI could be a catalyst for a more efficient, inclusive, and responsive government. This November, the State of California, issued an Executive Order and a lengthy but clearly-written report, enumerating potential benefits from the use of generative AI.

Published on December 3, 2023

Sam Altman, One True Leader and the Missed Opportunity for Innovation

As we navigate the complexities of leadership in the age of AI and beyond, the question of how we structure our systems of governance – both in politics and in our organizations – remains crucial. It's time we ask ourselves: Are we ready to challenge the long-held assumptions about leadership and embrace innovative models that could better serve our societies in the digital era? The future may depend on our willingness to rethink the very notion of power and authority, leveraging the tools and insights of our time to forge more resilient, inclusive, and effective governance structures.

Published on November 22, 2023

Was vTaiwan such a big flop, after all?

A recent issue of the Daily Beast featured an article about vTaiwan, Taiwan’s flagship crowdlaw project to engage the public in the legislative process, reporting what I long suspected and feared: early success has not translated into lasting impact or institutionalization of public participation in policymaking. 

Published on November 20, 2023

Using Artificial Intelligence to Tackle the Literacy Challenge

The Unlocking Literacy project using artificial intelligence to tap our collective intelligence. We are engaging diverse communities to ask why change is so hard, what's working, and how we can increase reading proficiency.

Published on November 17, 2023

Artificial Intelligence can help us create a more efficient government

This article was co-authored by Hector Mujica, Head of Economic Opportunity at Google.org and Beth Simone Noveck Director of The Burnes Center for Social Change and The GovLab.

Published on November 17, 2023

Artificial Intelligence can help us create a more efficient government

In the rapidly evolving technological landscape of the 21st century, the role of government in serving its citizens is undergoing a profound transformation

Published on November 16, 2023

“AI and the Future of Youth Democracy” with Zamaan Qureshi of Design It For Us, Sneha Revanur of Encode Justice, and Daniella DiPaola of the MIT Media Lab

View the full conversation from this panel discussion with Zamaan Qureshi, Co-Chair of the Design It For Us coalition, Sneha Revanur, founder and president of Encode Justice, and Daniella DiPaola, Ph.D. student in the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, about how youth can be empowered and equipped to thrive in the age of artificial intelligence. Co-moderated by Dane Gambrell, Research Fellow at the Burnes Center, and Bela Omoeva, Solutions Journalism Reporter at the Burnes Center.

Published on November 9, 2023

AI for the People: A Federal Mandate for Inclusive Engagement

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just transforming economies and industries; it holds the key to revolutionizing public engagement with the federal government.

Published on November 3, 2023

Are we focusing too much on the risks of AI and not the potential for good?

Are we focusing so much on the risks that we are failing to invest in and maximize the potential for AI to do good? 

Published on October 31, 2023

“AI for Citizen Engagement” with Róbert Bjarnason of Citizens Foundation, Colin Megill of Polis, and Professor Ariel Procaccia of Harvard University

View the full conversation with with Róbert Bjarnason, Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center and co-founder of the Citizens Foundation, Colin Megill, co-founder of Polis and board member of The Computational Democracy Project, and Ariel Procaccia, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University about using and studying AI to enable new forms of democratic engagement. Moderated by Beth Simone Noveck, professor at Northeastern University, where she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change and its partner project, The GovLab.

Published on October 26, 2023

Google.org support to train more government workers in digital skills

Google.org is providing $2 million in funding to help InnovateUS expand digital skills training to more than 50,000 government workers across at least 15 states.

Published on October 17, 2023

“The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives” with authors Brook Manville and Josiah Ober

View the full conversation with Brook Manville, author and independent consultant, and Josiah Ober, The Markos & Eleni Kounalakis Chair in Honor of Constantine Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University about their book “The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives”. Moderated by Beth Simone Noveck, professor at Northeastern University, where she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change and its partner project, The GovLab.

Published on September 21, 2023

Preparing for an AI-driven Future: The Government of India’s free AI for All Course

In August 2021, India’s Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) partnered with Intel to launch “AI for All” - a free, online, self-paced course to introduce the basic concepts of Artificial Intelligence to the Indian public.

Published on June 22, 2023