Building a Digital Democracy with Audrey Tang and Megan Smith
The “Building a Digital Democracy” panel brought together Audrey Tang, Megan Smith, Professor Danielle Allen, and Professor Mathias Risse for a conversation on how technology is being used to transform our political institutions.
This fall, the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies convened a panel conversation in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on “Building a Digital Democracy” featuring Professor Danielle Allen, Professor Mathias Risse, Audrey Tang (Former Taiwan Minister of Digital Affairs), and Megan Smith (Former United States Chief Technology Officer). The panel aimed to explore how technology is being used to transform political institutions, civil society, and political culture to support more representative, transparent, responsive, and participatory democracy, and how these infrastructures can be designed to protect individual human rights and democratic systems.
A few key themes from the conversation included:
Participatory Governance: Engaging citizens and communities in decision-making processes is vital to creating a sense of empowerment and ownership and to building stronger civic muscle. Panelists discussed how those closest to an issue have some of the best ideas for solving it, and shared examples from participatory budgeting and other citizen initiatives. Smith and Tang discussed how experiences such as a Presidential Hackathon in Taiwan or Open Data Hackathon in the U.S. helped to bridge folks from private and public sectors to cross-pollinate ideas. Taiwan’s hackathon included a commitment that the state would consider the winning hackathon idea as a digital infrastructure project for investment. Along with hackathons, both panelists emphasized the need to provide “air cover” to lower the risk for people to experiment with and tackle issues.
Civic Education: Educating young people about technology and civic engagement is important for preparing leaders to actively participate in democracy. Smith encouraged people to do a “rotation” through the government, moving from the technology sector into government and vice versa to bring in best practices and new perspectives.
Trust and Transparency: In order to gain public confidence, governments must demonstrate transparency and accountability. Tang shared an example from Taiwan’s efforts to rebuild trust in the administration, emphasizing the message that “trust is not that we work for the people, but rather we work with the people.” Reverse audit capabilities offer accountability for citizens to have more transparency into their government.
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Q & A: Crocodile tears, Can the ethical-moral intelligence of AI models be trusted?
As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in everyday decision-making, its role in shaping how people think about ethics and morality is drawing increasing scrutiny. In this conversation with researcher Sarah Hubbard, we discuss insights from her co-authored paper, “Crocodile Tears: Can the Ethical-Moral Intelligence of AI Models Be Trusted?”—examining how AI systems respond to moral dilemmas, and what this reveals about the risks, limitations, and need for greater transparency and human oversight in AI-driven ethical guidance.
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