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AI For Governance

Showing 15 of 67 results in series "AI For Governance"

AI For Governance

The Reports Nobody Reads: How San Francisco Used AI to Declutter Its Municipal Code

In a new piece for the Rethinking Regulation series, Dane Gambrell examines how San Francisco used a custom AI tool developed with Stanford’s RegLab to scan 16 million words of municipal code and identify hundreds of outdated and duplicative reporting requirements across city government. The effort ultimately produced a 351-page ordinance proposing the deletion or consolidation of 174 mandates. The piece offers a grounded look at how AI can help governments make sprawling bureaucratic systems more legible and manageable.

Published on May 19, 2026 by Dane Gambrell

AI For Governance

The Future We Build: Hope and Public Service at Code for America Summit

A reflection from Rob Asaro-Angelo, Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center, from the 2026 Code for America Summit on why optimism in government depends on implementation. Drawing from conversations on procurement reform, service delivery, and AI in the public sector, the piece explores how public servants across the country are turning institutional frustration into practical change and why hope becomes credible when people have the tools, authority, and persistence to make systems work better.

Published on May 18, 2026 by Robert Asaro-Angelo

AI For Governance

AI Can Help Our Leaders Be Better

In an article originally published in The Times (Scottish Edition), Beth Simone Noveck argues that AI’s most important democratic use is helping governments listen. Drawing on examples from Camden and Scotland, the piece explores how AI could help public institutions process large-scale public input, strengthen participation, and rebuild trust at a time when governments face rising demand and declining capacity.

Published on May 14, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck

AI For Governance

Zero-Click Government: Omakase or Loss of Agency?

In the afterword to Gustavo Maia’s forthcoming book Zero-Click Government, Beth Simone Noveck explores the democratic risks and possibilities of anticipatory governance. While supporting efforts to reduce the administrative burdens placed on citizens, she argues that traditional requests and applications also served as an important democratic feedback signal, one that anticipatory systems risk losing when governments act on inferred demand. Her response examines what kinds of participation, transparency, contestation, and institutional learning are needed if public action is increasingly shaped by data and AI.

Published on May 13, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck

AI For Governance

The Capitol Wire & Building Congressional Intelligence for Everyone

Congressional information has long been technically public but practically inaccessible, scattered across government sites and locked behind expensive subscription platforms. In response, Zach Florman, Communications Director for Rep. Laura Friedman, created the Capitol Wire tool. The Capitol Wire shows how AI can close that gap by turning floor schedules, bill texts, and legislative updates into real-time alerts and searchable policy briefs that are fast, verifiable, and free. The result is a tool that makes public information more legible for staffers, reporters, and citizens alike, and increases the likelihood of public engagement.

Published on May 11, 2026 by Zachary Florman

AI For Governance

Who Gets to Define the AI Debate? A Youth Perspective

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.

Published on May 4, 2026 by Amedeo Bettauer

AI For Governance

Rethinking Regulation: How Virginia Used AI to Streamline Its Regulatory Code

A new entry in our Rethinking Regulation series, this in-depth case study by Dane Gambrell includes an interview with Reeve Bull, who led the state’s regulatory modernization effort. It traces how Virginia used AI to review decades of accumulated rules, cut regulatory requirements by over a third, and make them clearer and more accessible. It shows how governments can pair strong institutional processes with AI to modernize regulation and improve how it works for the public.

Published on Apr 28, 2026 by Dane Gambrell

AI For Governance

Before you engage, listen: a framework for citizen participation across the policy cycle

A mayor presents a plan, residents push back, and everyone leaves frustrated, not because people weren’t heard, but because listening and engagement happened at the wrong moment. This piece reframes participation as a cycle: listening to set the agenda, engagement to shape decisions, and follow-through to prove input mattered. The example of St. Louis shows how sequencing these stages turns public input into real outcomes, with AI enabling reflection on input at scale.

Published on Apr 27, 2026 by Wietse Van Ransbeeck

AI For Governance

A Dozen Interns on Cocaine: What One of the Longest-Running Civic Tech Projects Reveals About AI in Government

What happens when governments rely on systems that sound right instead of being right? Drawing on OpenFisca’s spread from France to governments across Europe, Africa, and Oceania, Beth Simone Noveck’s interview with Matti Schneider makes the case for public infrastructure that computes the law, as well as the risks of sidelining it as generative AI scales globally.

Published on Apr 22, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck

AI For Governance

What AI Governance Documents Actually Cover and What They Don’t

AI governance is expanding fast, but not evenly. A new analysis from MIT and Georgetown’s CSET maps over 1,000 governance documents to show that while policies are proliferating, they cluster around familiar risks and sectors, leaving key gaps across socioeconomic impacts, upstream design, and everyday domains. The result, as relayed by research member Yan Zhu, is a more precise picture of what AI governance actually covers, what it still overlooks, and where policymakers should focus in the future.

Published on Apr 20, 2026 by Yan Zhu

AI For Governance

But Grok Said So! How AI is Enabling Political Polarization

Across contexts like India, where author Anirudh Dinesh’s family lives, AI chatbots such as xAI’s Grok are increasingly used not to inform but to generate arguments that reinforce existing political views, creating “generative echo chambers.” Unlike passive social media exposure, users actively prompt AI to validate positions, often producing confident but inaccurate claims that go unchecked. While some research suggests AI can moderate views in neutral dialogue, real-world use skews toward advocacy, compounded by low verification and high trust in outputs. The result is that AI may not just reflect polarization, but actively deepen it, depending on how these systems are designed and used.

Published on Apr 15, 2026 by Anirudh Dinesh

AI For Governance

What Good AI In Government Actually Looks Like

More than $1 trillion in federal grants flows to communities each year, but complexity keeps much of it out of reach. This piece by Beth Simone Noveck, published by Fast Company, explores how AI can either deepen that gap or help close it. The solution is GrantWell, a community-centered tool designed with local governments to make funding accessible and public systems work as intended. Launched in Massachusetts and expanding to additional states, it shows how AI can help communities claim the resources already set aside for them.

Published on Apr 14, 2026 by Beth Simone Noveck

AI For Governance

Can AI Strengthen Policy Dialogue? Lessons from Building ReguLens

Developed by the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization with and for employer organizations, ReguLens responds to a growing policy bottleneck. The rapid surge in complex, overlapping regulations is outpacing institutional capacity. Built through iterative co-creation with users across regions, the tool helps organizations analyze proposals, identify impacts, and engage earlier in policy debates.

Published on Apr 8, 2026 by Jorge Cesar Ramirez Mata

AI For Governance

Amplifying Public Communication in the AI Era: Highlights from Our Year-Long Intellectual Journey

This piece by John Wihbey and Jill Abramson distills lessons from the InnovateUS Amplify workshop series, where public-sector communicators grappled with how AI is reshaping their work amid declining public trust. Across sessions, we learn that AI can accelerate research, synthesis, and storytelling, but it cannot replace judgment, verification, or institutional values. As communicators adopt new tools, the opportunity lies in using AI to strengthen transparency, credibility, and connection with the public, rather than erode them.

Published on Apr 6, 2026 by Jill Abramson and John Wihbey

AI For Governance

Governor Hochul Delivers Artificial Intelligence Training Tool to the New York State Workforce

Following the success of a 1,200-person pilot across eight state agencies, New York is scaling InnovateUS' AI training initiative to more than 100,000 state employees, the largest program of its kind in the nation. Read the NYS press release detailing the expansion, which focuses on helping public servants build the skills and knowledge to responsibly use emerging technologies for the public good.

Published on Apr 6, 2026