Reboot Weekly: 85% Cloud Lock-In, an AI Coach for Public Servants, and Why AI Shouldn't Vote

Published on June 25, 2026

Summary

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google control 85% of Canada's cloud market. In a new Reboot Democracy piece, David Eaves and Curtis McCord argue this concentration is a democracy problem, not just a competition one, because public institutions lose leverage over the infrastructure they depend on. The GovLab and InnovateUS launch an AI Coach for Public Engagement that helps public servants move from training to real project planning. And in Part II of their Habermolt response, José Luis Martí and Beth Simone Noveck argue that delegating political judgment to AI agents risks replacing democratic self-government with algorithmic authority.

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June 25, 2:00 PM ET — Invisible Barriers: Disability Rights and Public Sector AI (final Elephants in the AI Room session)
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AI and Public Engagement

From Learning to Doing: An AI Coach for Public Engagement

Manan Gangwani, Kushal Pendekanti and Cevdet Batuhan Isik on June 22, 2026 in Reboot Democracy

Built by The GovLab for InnovateUS, this new AI for Impact-engineered engagement coach helps public servants move from engagement upskilling to real-world practice. Instead of offering a generic checklist, the tool asks targeted questions about a practitioner’s project—who needs to be involved, which decisions will be shaped by public input, and which constraints matter—and then draws on engagement frameworks, case studies, and expert interviews to guide planning. The piece argues that AI’s value in government is not just retrieving information, but helping public professionals apply judgment under real constraints.

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AI and Public Engagement

Stop Shouting. Start Policymaking.

Carl Miller and Beth Goldberg on June 17, 2026 in AI Policy Perspectives

From Bowling Green’s record-setting digital town hall to Camden Council’s care-policy consultations, the authors argue that AI can strengthen democratic participation when it helps governments listen at scale, uncover common ground, and connect citizen input to decision-making.

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AI and Public Engagement

Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact

Jeffrey Gottfried, William Bishop, Monica Anderson, Michelle Faverio, Eugenie Park and Colleen McClain on June 17, 2026 in Pew Research Center

A new Pew survey finds that AI adoption continues to grow rapidly in the United States, with about half of adults now using chatbots and one-quarter using them daily. Despite this uptake, public sentiment remains cautious: majorities believe AI is advancing too quickly, threatens data security, and will have a more negative than positive impact on society.

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AI and Public Engagement

AI 2035: The Alternate Timeline

Elizabeth Cox on June 24, 2026 in Foresight institute

Life Institute’s Tool AI scenario, an animated short, follows a government AI auditor overseeing an AI-assisted rezoning decision to ensure underrepresented communities are heard before action is taken. The film envisions AI as a tool for supporting democratic participation, public oversight, digital health, and education, while emphasizing human accountability, liability for AI harms, and governance systems that keep people in control.

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AI for Governance

The Adoption of Generative AI in EU Public Administrations

Patrick Mikalef, Rony Medaglia, Luca Tangi, and Paula Rodriguez Müller on June 19, 2026 in European Commission Joint Research Centre

Public administrations across Europe are integrating generative AI into everyday work. The authors find that adoption is often driven by individual experimentation, creating tensions between innovation and oversight, while governments grapple with questions of governance, data protection, workforce skills, and technological sovereignty as they move from pilots to institution-wide deployment.

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AI for Governance

Could AI Destroy Our Democracy—or Fix It?

Beth Simone Noveck and John Izzo on June 17, 2026 in The Way Forward: Regenerative Conversations Podcast

Beth Simone Noveck argues that AI will not save democracy on its own, but can help people rebuild more responsive institutions. Drawing from her upcoming book Reboot, she describes how AI can help governments listen at scale, analyze public input, find common ground, improve election information, and support civic problem-solving. Examples include public consultation tools in the UK, Hamburg, California, Taiwan, Mexico, Bowling Green, and student-built projects like GrantWell and AI tools for families navigating special education services

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Governing AI

Sovereign Wealth Fund Tax on AI Companies Unveiled by Sanders

Allison Mollenkamp on June 18, 2026 in Roll Call

Sen. Bernie Sanders has unveiled the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, a proposal that would require large AI companies to pay a one-time tax in stock, creating a public fund that would distribute dividends to Americans and invest in priorities such as housing, education, and health care.

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Governing AI

Japan to Increase Global Cooperation Against AI-Enabled Cyberattacks

Staff on June 19, 2026 in The Yomiuri Shimbun

Japan’s government has proposed revising its national AI strategy to strengthen international cooperation in addressing cybersecurity risks posed by increasingly capable AI models. The Japan AI Safety Institute, a government-affiliated organization established in 2024, will spearhead efforts to evaluate AI performance concerning cybersecurity.

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AI and Public Safety

Research Radar: In Lobsters We Do Not Trust — The Wrong Path for AI and Democracy, Part II

José Luis Martí and Beth Simone Noveck on June 23, 2026 in Reboot Democracy

This essay critiques the Habermolt project’s proposal that AI agents could one day represent citizens in democratic deliberation. The authors contend that democratic participation is valuable not only for reaching decisions but for helping citizens learn, revise their views, and develop civic virtues through engagement with others. While AI may support deliberation, the piece warns that delegating political judgment to increasingly capable agents risks replacing democratic self-government with algorithmic authority.

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AI and Public Safety

Could AI Supercharge the Government Surveillance Stack?

Logan Kugler on June 16, 2026 in Communications of the ACM

This article examines how advanced AI systems deployed within national security and intelligence environments could expand governments’ surveillance capabilities. Triggered by recent Pentagon agreements with leading AI companies, experts warn that multimodal AI may combine fragmented datasets into powerful systems capable of monitoring populations at an unprecedented scale.

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AI Infrastructure

An Open Society Needs an Open Market: The Compute Problem Cities, Regions, and Nations Share

Reboot Democracy on June 24, 2026 in David Eaves and Curtis McCord

Using Canada’s cloud market—where Amazon, Microsoft, and Google control 85% of infrastructure—as a case study, the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project proposes procurement rules, interoperability standards, and competition policies that reduce vendor lock-in and make cloud services more portable. The piece contends that autonomy comes from preserving the ability to exit, giving governments, businesses, and public institutions greater leverage over the digital infrastructure they depend on.

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