Insights on AI governance, public sector innovation, and democracy
Three-Year Multistate Initiative Will Combine Free Mobile AI Learning with Library-Based Programs Helping Residents Navigate Government, Participate in Civic Life, and Solve Community Problems with AI
The public conversation about AI has swung from exuberance to alarm, casting AI as an unstoppable force. That framing overlooks the fact that public institutions design, build, buy, and regulate AI, and societies still choose where it leads. This fall, Reboot is organizing its coverage around four connected questions: what capabilities public institutions need, how they can become institutions that listen and learn, what public AI infrastructure requires, and how we measure whether AI is actually creating public value.
Ted Dintersmith and Beth Simone Noveck argue that America’s high school math curriculum remains rooted in the needs of the 19th century rather than the AI era. They call for replacing an emphasis on rote procedures with quantitative reasoning, statistics, probability, and decision-making skills that people actually use. The authors propose using AI to engage thousands of students, educators, parents, and employers in redesigning math education through large-scale, democratic public participation.
The debate about AI has focused on misinformation and AI slop, but those are only part of the story. As AI creates both unprecedented information abundance and information compression, we need a new conception of information literacy—one that encompasses how individuals reason, how communities learn together, and how democratic institutions use AI to become better listeners and problem-solvers.
Beth Simone Noveck spoke to The Herald (Scotland) about the role of AI in education and the need for decision-makers to engage with the technology rather than fear it, ahead of her talk at the Edinburgh Futures Institute's Civic University – Democracy, AI, and the Public Imagination."
As AI transforms how we work, learn, and govern, what role should universities play? In this wide-ranging conversation, Beth Noveck argues that universities should become laboratories for democratic problem-solving, where students work with communities to address public challenges. She outlines a vision for "democratic AI" that puts public purpose, participation, and impact at the center of technological innovation.
Kazakhstan built one of the world’s most advanced digital governments in less than two decades. Now the country is racing into the next phase: AI-enabled governance, sovereign AI infrastructure, and nationwide AI deployment. But this transition is exposing a harder question beneath the ambition: what happens when countries move toward frontier AI systems before large parts of the population have reliable electricity, affordable internet, laptops, or the skills needed to use AI meaningfully?
Ahead of a timely conversation around the civic role of the university in an age of democratic uncertainty and rapid technological change, Beth Simone Noveck spoke to the Scotsman about how Scotland's universities are uniquely place to reinvent the purpose of higher education.
As governments search for ways to operationalize AI ethics inside public institutions, Türkiye’s new YAZEK system offers an early example of what procedural AI governance can look like in practice. The piece examines how the Ministry of Education embedded mandatory AI ethics declarations into everyday administrative workflows, while also exploring the system’s limits around verification, oversight, and remedy when automated systems cause harm.
A high school journalist reflects on who is shaping the public conversation about AI. While headlines focus on risk and disruption, everyday uses of AI are already helping families access benefits, students learn, and cities deliver services. The gap, Amedeo Bettauer argues, is in between those whose experiences count in defining the debate and those in power who seek out diverse experiences.
Cities often treat nearby universities as occasional partners rather than strategic collaborators. But as artificial intelligence reshapes local economies and public services, that relationship may need to change. Drawing on a new policy brief, The AI Lab Next Door, Neil Kleiman argues that city–university “compacts” can transform transactional ties into intentional partnerships, helping communities harness the growing AI capacity already taking shape on college campuses.
Crowdsourced mapping of schools in Uzbekistan and Bhutan combined with AI data analysis created greater insight into on-the-ground conditions. By treating geography as essential, spatial data, participatory collection, and AI analysis reshaped how evidence-informed public investment and policy decisions are made in Uzbekistan and Bhutan.
Since its creation in 2023, InnovateUS’s training offerings have supported public professionals in making sense of change together, building capacity, and strengthening their ability to make informed decisions in practice. Our Spring 2026 workshop offering, which we’re presenting today, reflects insights from learners, partners, and experts about the challenges facing public service today.
Co-designed with parents, the AIEP tool is both a technical solution and a catalyst for civic power for families of children with diverse abilities. By building AI literacy through in-person training and WhatsApp-based courses, the project offers a model for community-centered technology, making education systems more navigable and equitable. AI tools can open doors to access and advocacy, but it’s human connection and support networks that give those tools meaning. That is where the most powerful change is taking shape, and where investment matters most.
The New York City subway would never accept an ad for a hitman-for-hire service, or for a pill that claimed to cure depression but wasn’t FDA-approved, or a social network designed exclusively to groom minors. Those would be illegal, unethical—and obviously dangerous. So why is the MTA running a massive ad campaign for friend.com, a product that, if not already illegal, certainly should be?
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