News That Caught Our Eye #44

Published on January 1, 1970

Summary

An AEI report argues that AI isn't ready to draft regulations while the EU starts enforcing theirs. OpenAI made progress with AI Agents and New Jersey unveiled its $72M AI Hub at Princeton. Code for America published an “AI Cheat Sheet” for government and Canada explores a Citizens Assembly on AI. Two new studies examined the promises and limitations of using AI to amplify and deepen public engagement in policy making. Read these stories and more in this edition of AI News That Caught Our Eye.

AI and Elections

AI is Changing Elections: How Can We Protect Democracy?

on February 5, 2025 in Greenpeace International YouTube

In this video podcast, Greenpeace hosts an interview with data and social scientist Dr. Rumman Chowdhury to explore how we can move from a world that serves the economy to an economy that serves people and the planet. They ask questions such as: How does AI relate to democracy and elections? How is generative AI amplifying the threats against democracy? What does manipulation look like in the AI era? among others.

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Governing AI

EU kicks off landmark AI law enforcement as first batch of restrictions enter into force

Ryan Browne on February 3, 2025 in CNBC

“The European Union formally kicked off enforcement of its landmark artificial intelligence law Sunday, paving the way for tough restrictions and potential large fines for violations. The EU AI Act, a first-of-its-kind regulatory framework for the technology, formally entered into force in August 2024. On Sunday, the deadline for prohibitions on certain artificial intelligence systems and requirements to ensure sufficient technology literacy among staff officially lapsed. That means companies must now comply with the restrictions and can face penalties if they fail to do so.” TechCrunch covered the penalties for AI uses that the EU deems “unacceptable risk”, which include AI used for social scoring, AI that manipulates a person’s decisions subliminally or deceptively, and many other applications. In a blog post, data scientist Axel Schwanke provides a helpful high-level summary of the Act’s key provisions and discusses how institutions can use compliance with the Act as an opportunity to improve their data governance practices. The Center for Democracy & Technology provided an overview of other important changes to European AI policy in its January bulletin.

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Governing AI

AI-Generated Regulation: Not Ready for Prime Time (Yet)

Connor Raso on January 1, 2025 in American Enterprise Institute Center for Technology, Science, and Energy

“Generative AI has attracted great attention in the policymaking sphere, including for agency rulemaking. This report compares a final rule drafted by a generative AI model with the Department of Transportation’s actual rule. The AI model’s policy recommendations appear overly sensitive to the number of commenters supporting a position rather than the strength of their evidence and reasoning. Moreover, the rule draft is relatively cursory and lacks the explanatory depth expected in agency rules. The results are more promising with respect to summarizing comments, which may save agency staff significant time and increase their responsiveness to comments. Future generations of generative AI will undoubtedly improve, meriting ongoing study of these issues.”

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AI for Governance

A Cheat Sheet for AI in Government

Michael Cowden and Fahad Quraishi on January 16, 2025 in Code for America

Code for America has developed an AI terminology “cheat sheet” that provides public institutions with easy-to-understand explanations, definitions, and examples of AI: “Governments across the country are thinking about ways to use artificial intelligence (AI). Some state agencies are using chatbots to simplify the customer experience when people accessing a service need direction to basic information. Others are using it to sort applications so that caseworkers can identify who can easily be approved for a benefit and whose cases need more personal attention… In order to responsibly decide when and where to adopt AI, governments should be familiar with the terminology around the technology…”

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AI for Governance

Elon Musk Ally Tells Staff ‘AI-First’ Is the Future of Key Government Agency

Makena Kelly on February 3, 2025 in Wired

“Thomas Shedd, the recently appointed Technology Transformation Services director and Elon Musk ally, told General Services Administration workers that the agency’s new administrator is pursuing an ‘AI-first strategy,’ shared his vision for a GSA that operates like a ‘startup software company,’ automating different internal tasks and centralizing data from across the federal government. ‘This does raise red flags,’ a cybersecurity expert who was granted anonymity due to concerns of retaliation told WIRED on Monday, who noted that automating the government isn’t the same as automating other things, like self-driving cars.”

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AI and Public Engagement

Democratic Legitimacy for AI

on January 1, 1970 in Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy and Mila-Quebec AI Institute

The Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy and the Mila-Québec AI Institute have proposed the “Canadian Citizens Assembly on Artificial Intelligence.” About the project: “A first of its kind to be piloted in Canada, the Assembly will make use of both civic technologies and well-established Citizens’ Assembly processes to allow Canadians from across the country to weigh-in on what they believe to be the best approaches to governing AI. The project ultimately seeks to democratize decision-making around AI policies, foster democratic legitimacy and trust in AI systems, and create the conditions for successful governance of AI in Canada through a more grassroots-driven approach.”

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AI and Public Engagement

Artificial Intelligence for Participation

Fernanda Campagnucci, Jose Carlos Vaz, Norbert Kersting, and Italo Alberto Sousa on January 21, 2025 in Policy Commons

“The publication explores current and potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in political participation processes and democratic governance in smart cities. Primarily aimed at public managers, the policy brief provides a comprehensive overview of AI as a tool to amplify citizen participation and improve urban governance. Additionally, it highlights critical considerations such as ethical concerns, impacts on transparency, and risks of digital exclusion, proposing an agenda for discussions on the new state capabilities required to implement these technologies responsibly.”

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AI and Public Engagement

Who Participates in Digital Democracy – and Who Really Benefits?

Fredrik M. Sjoberg and Tiago C. Peixoto on February 3, 2025 in Reboot Democracy

This blog post summarizes the findings from a recent study examining use cases from four countries where digital platforms were used to engage residents in lawmaking and policymaking. The authors conclude that “who participates in digital democracy doesn’t always determine who benefits – what matters is whether and how governments respond. If they don’t respond, or if their response isn’t inclusive, even the broadest participation means little. AI-driven engagement must go beyond scaling participation and deliberation to address this challenge.”

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AI and Problem Solving

OpenAI launches new AI tool to facilitate research tasks

on February 2, 2025 in Reuters

“Generative artificial intelligence heavyweight OpenAI launched a new AI tool on Sunday called ‘deep research’, which it said conducts multi-step research on the internet for complex tasks. Deep research is powered by a version of the upcoming OpenAI o3 model optimized for web browsing and data analysis. Users have to give a prompt and OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT will find, analyze, and synthesize several online sources such as text, images, and PDFs to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst, OpenAI said.”

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AI Infrastructure

Governor Murphy and Princeton University President Eisgruber announce Microsoft and CoreWeave as founding partners in NJ AI Hub

on January 31, 2025 in Microsoft Source

“Governor Phil Murphy and Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber on Friday announced that Microsoft and CoreWeave will join the state and Princeton as founding partners in the NJ AI Hub. The NJ AI Hub will serve as a state-of-the-art, collaborative ecosystem that integrates world-class research, innovation, education and workforce development. As part of this investment in the NJ AI Hub, Microsoft will leverage its TechSpark program to provide expertise and resources for AI skilling and workforce development to create opportunities for innovation in New Jersey and the region. The NJ AI Hub will help position New Jersey as a leading East Coast center for AI innovation. It will be located along Route 1 — New Jersey’s innovation corridor — at 619 Alexander Road in West Windsor, in space provided by Princeton University…Microsoft, CoreWeave, the NJEDA and Princeton University are founding equity partners in the newly created NJ AI Hub. Together, they expect to invest over $72 million to support the long-term success of the Hub, including up to $25 million of nonbinding commitment from the NJEDA.”

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