Additional Resource  

Democracy as Approximation: A Primer for “AI for Democracy” Innovators

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Aviv Ovadya at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023.

This essay was adapted from a presentation given by Aviv Ovadya at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

Can we accelerate democratic innovation by recalling that real-world democracy is an imperfect approximation of an ideal? How might AI help?

“No matter what form of democracy we are aiming for, we should remember that all democracy is, by necessity, an imperfect approximation of an ideal worth striving for. The only question is what kind of democracy we choose to cultivate with the resources that we can bring to bear, ” writes Ovadya.

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Weaponized AI: A New Era of Threats and How We Can Counter It

Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation Fellow Dr. Shlomit Wagman lays out a framework to address the threats artificial intelligence poses to global security and democratic institutions.

Why US States Are the Best Labs for Public AI

Additional Resource

Why US States Are the Best Labs for Public AI

In a recent piece for Tech Policy Press, Allen Lab Senior Fellow Alex Pascal and Nathan Sanders outline how US states are well-positioned to lead the development of Public AI. State governments can act as “laboratories of twenty-first century democracy” to experiment with AI applications that directly benefit citizens.

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AI on the Ballot: How Artificial Intelligence Is Already Changing Politics
An American flag in the background with a robot hand holding a ballot box

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AI on the Ballot: How Artificial Intelligence Is Already Changing Politics

At a recent Ash Center panel, experts and AI developers discuss how AI’s influence on politics has evolved over the years. They examine the new tools available to politicians, the role of humans in AI’s relationship with governance, and the values guiding the design of these technologies.