In September the Citizens’ Track on AI, along with our partners Iswe Foundation, were in San Francisco (kindly hosted by the Swiss Consul General) and New York (at the Ford Foundation Centre for Social Justice as a UN General Assembly fringe event) running two roundtables to explore routes to mobilise wider resources to participatory, democratic and community-led governance of AI.
In a fortnight where AI was top of the news agenda, and when AI executives were calling, at least rhetorically, for AI to be shaped by democratic process, our roundtables explored both the opportunity to combine top-down and bottom-up efforts for democratic AI, and the challenges ahead in supporting organisations and funders to take a coordinated approach to shaping the future of AI.
The roundtable discussions took place under Chatham House Rule and covered a lot of ground: we’ve distilled five key messages here.
Five key messages
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There is a vibrant and growing field of participatory and democratic AI governance: drawing on deliberative methods to shape cross-partisan policy proposals, and on community assembly models that create local capacity, solidarity, agency and actions. The PAVE Case Book documents 80+ cases of participatory AI governance worldwide. The blueprint of the Citizens Track on AI shows routes to embed public voice in the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance and Geneva AI Summit: shifting narratives & establishing precedent for public voice in emerging global fora.
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Investments in public participation are a critical complement to support for Public AI and ‘AI for Good’: funders are exploring how to shape AI systems and deployments towards the public interest. Participatory processes can shift public sector and market demand for better AI, and can build public support for alternative AI futures. Public interest tech can’t compete on marketing budgets: but participatory engagement can help shift public discourse from techlash resistance, to proactive debate about how to build and secure public goods from AI.
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Democratic AI governance is central to the broader democracy movement: in a context of democratic erosion, governing powerful technology, and rebuilding faith in democratic culture in an era of AI is vital. We are up against very well-resourced corporations that may use the language of democratisation, but in current configurations ultimately serve private interests. Mobilising public participation on AI, whilst avoiding ‘capture’ requires a power-aware theory of change and a range of strategies to catalyse individual, collective and institutional action.
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Traditional funders are still unsure of how to engage with AI, and there is a need to focus on learning ‘What works’ to best shift public agency on AI at scale. Deliberative methods could support funders and their beneficiary groups to pursue a learning journey together.
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Rapid resourcing is needed to capitalise on the current moment: there is a short window to establish democratic norms in AI governance, and avoid an elite-led settlement in AI regulation.
To find out how you can support the Citizens’ Track on AI e-mail mailto:contact@citizens-track.org
Roundtables co-hosted by
