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REBOOT

AI And The Race To Save Democracy

Beth Simone Noveck

Published by Yale University Press

Democracy needs a moonshot. Reboot offers a practical blueprint.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Democracy is in retreat at home and abroad.

Our institutions are more fragile than ever. At this delicate moment, artificial intelligence has burst onto the scene—a powerful technology that holds as much potential to bolster democracy as to harm it.

Yet we no longer treat democracy as a design challenge we can solve.We have built extraordinary tools without yet using them where they are needed most: to forge institutions that listen more closely, decide more wisely, and act more effectively.
We stand at an inflection point. Will AI tighten the grip of power—or help rebuild public institutions that work for people? Reboot offers a bold and practical playbook for tipping the balance in favor of democracy.

For technologists, public servants, researchers and civic leaders, Reboot offers a practical framework for governing AI—and for governing with it

Table of contents

REVIEWS

Most books about AI and democracy focus on what could go wrong. Noveck does something harder: she shows us what working right looks like. Drawing on real-world experiments, she demonstrates that AI can strengthen democracy—if we design it that way.

Jennifer Pahlka

Author of Recoding America

At a time when many fear AI will erode democracy, Noveck shows us how to make it democracy’s most powerful ally. A vital, hopeful roadmap for institutional renewal.

Audrey Tang

Coauthor of Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy

Noveck has spent her career designing and deploying technology in democratic institutions, and it shows. Reboot is a clear, practical, and important book about how AI can strengthen democratic institutions when designed responsibly. Essential reading for technologists, policymakers, and citizens—anyone concerned about the future of democracy.

Bruce Schneier

Coauthor of Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform our Government, Politics, and Citizenship

Be prepared to work if you read this excellent book. Noveck makes you think about some of the hardest questions facing democracy and technology today, and I found myself revisiting my positions more than once

Vint Cerf

Internet Pioneer

A timely tour of unchecked AI’s political hazards asks citizens to take the wheel.

Noveck, a professor at Northeastern University, led the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform team in the Obama administration and global projects promoting democratic participation. She sounds the alarm on AI’s rapidly evolving power in the U.S. and around the world and its possible harms. She also argues that AI can be used to promote truly democratic goals with political will and public engagement. A timeline of early AI systems shows that implementing today’s more powerful models for public good requires understanding their limitations. The author calls out social media manipulations—deepfakes, voice clones, misinformation, and fakes, including video of Ron DeSantis withdrawing from the presidential race and audio of Joe Biden urging New Hampshire voters to skip a primary election. Globally, AI tools now transcribe legislative meetings in the Netherlands, Bahrain, Argentina, Estonia, Brazil, and India. The U.S. Congress has been slow to adapt. Noveck warns of “great risk in maintaining the status quo while the world changes around us.” She also scorns Elon Musk’s AI-powered DOGE efforts, writing, “we should not mistake the cynical appointment of unqualified cronies and political theater for serious reforms.” A “possibilist, who neither hopes nor fears without reason,” Noveck admits that AI tools are black boxes with privacy, surveillance, and bias issues. Her book presents a wealth of thoughtful examples, but solutions to these problems and AI’s effects on diverse political systems around the world is a larger topic than this volume can deeply address. Still, this sobering account reveals how tensions between the promise of a direct democracy and compromises and challenges of a representative democracy are exacerbated by profit-driven AI models, inviting serious rethinking of public life.

A smart, incisive, and sharply critical examination of AI’s impacts on our society.

- Kirkus Book Reviews

Beth Simone Noveck

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beth Simone Noveck

Beth Simone Noveck is the author of Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy (Yale University Press, 2026). A professor at Northeastern University with appointments in law, engineering, policy, communications and computer science, she directs The Burnes Center for Social Change and The Governance Lab. Her work focuses on “Democratic AI”or how to apply AI to strengthen democratic institutions and improve government performance. She previously served in the White House, 10 Downing Street, and the German Chancellery, and founded the White House Open Government Initiative. She leads InnovateUS, which supports free public sector learning and its research initiative the Observatory of Public Sector AI, and AI for Impact, which designs and deploys AI tools to improve public outcomes. Read more about Beth here and by her here. 

Complete Bio

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