Last week, Boston became a laboratory for democratic innovation. Two major gatherings brought together technologists, government officials, and civic leaders to tackle an urgent question: How can we harness AI to strengthen rather than strain our democratic institutions?
At a time when trust in government sits near historic lows, these convenings offered concrete evidence that technology can, in fact, serve the public good. While headlines often dwell on AI’s risks to democracy, practitioners across the country are quietly building tools that enhance civic engagement, improve public services, and rebuild trust.
Rather than waiting for perfect solutions, these public servants are testing, learning, and refining in real time, turning experimentation itself into an act of democratic renewal.
From Theory to Practice: The Civic AI Summit
On October 15th, New America and Rethink AI convened the Civic AI Summit at Northeastern University, including launching the report “Making AI Work for the Public: An ALT Perspective. This wasn't another conference about AI's theoretical potential. Instead, practitioners from California New York, demonstrated real tools already improving government services.
Jeff Bezos' Earth Fund presented their approach to catalytic investment, not just in technology itself, but in the breakthrough discoveries technology enables. Think of how the telescope unlocked astronomical discovery; AI could play a similar role for governance.
Cities are already proving this possible. Working with partners like US Digital Response, urban innovation offices are deploying AI to expand civic participation and surface community needs that might otherwise go unheard. Teams broke into working groups to develop use cases grounded in human-centered design, the foundational principle that technology must serve people, not the other way around.
The measure of success remains how well the government serves its most vulnerable citizens. The leaders gathered in Boston understand this. They're using AI not to replace human judgment but to augment our capacity for democratic participation and public service.
Digital Infrastructure in Action
The following day, Harvard Kennedy School's Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation and Bloomberg Center for Cities shifted focus to Massachusetts' digital civic infrastructure. The flash talks showcased tools that make democracy more transparent and accessible.
Dave Lesher demonstrated California's Digital Democracy platform, which tracks everything from campaign donations to legislative votes. Its AI component flags discrepancies for journalists, effectively democratizing investigative reporting. Here in Massachusetts, Nate Sanders and Matt Victor are building MAPLE, a platform that simplifies legislative engagement, allowing citizens to easily submit testimony and automatically notify their representatives.
Our own AI for Impact program, which I was privileged to present alongside Jennifer Lyons from the state's Operational Services Division, exemplifies this approach. College students work in six-month sprints with government agencies, building AI tools that have already transformed how Massachusetts processes billions in government contracts, faster, more accurately, and with greater transparency.
One striking feature of Massachusetts' approach deserves replication nationwide: the genuine partnership between Boston CIO Santiago Garces and state technology secretary Jason Snyder. Their collaboration—sharing AI architectures, lessons learned, and challenges faced—demonstrates how coordination between state and municipal technology leaders directly benefits residents.
Innovation is happening at every level. When leaders align rather than compete, everyone wins.
Looking Forward: Democracy's Digital Opportunity
As AI continues to evolve, we face a choice. We can let fear paralyze us, or we can shape these tools to strengthen democratic practice. The work underway in Boston and beyond suggests a third path: thoughtful experimentation guided by democratic values and human needs.
Democracy has always been a form of technology—a system for collective decision-making that evolves with the tools available. The question shouldn’t be whether to use AI in governance, but how to ensure it serves democratic ends. Last week's convenings in Boston offered compelling answers. Now it's time to scale what works.
Photo credit: "Old State House, Washington St, Boston” by Robert Linsdell, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. AI-modified (retextured).