How we used AI to lift the voices of California state employees Using AI to analyze over 2,400 employee comments, California’s Engaged California team found that the challenge wasn’t the scale of the data, but making sense of complex, layered input without oversimplifying it. Their experience shows why human judgment remains essential, from building taxonomies to catching errors, as results can shift significantly depending on how AI is applied and what people choose to trust and prioritize.

What does it take to make large-scale public input usable?

By pairing AI with open, shareable data, California's #OfficeofDataandInnovation team shows how transparency, code, and human judgment can turn thousands of comments into something others can build on.

What AI Governance Documents Actually Cover and What They Don’t AI governance is expanding fast, but not evenly. A new analysis from MIT and Georgetown’s CSET maps over 1,000 governance documents to show that while policies are proliferating, they cluster around familiar risks and sectors, leaving key gaps across socioeconomic impacts, upstream design, and everyday domains. The result, as relayed by research member Yan Zhu, is a more precise picture of what AI governance actually covers, what it still overlooks, and where policymakers should focus in the future.

AI governance is growing fast, but not evenly. MIT Risk Initiative mapping 1,000+ policies shows where attention clusters and where gaps remain across socioeconomic impacts and upstream design.

How New York plans to implement Artificial Intelligence training for State workers This week, Power & Politics takes a deeper look at Artificial Intelligence in government, specifically an enhanced initiative in New York State implementing AI

🧵 New York State is training 100,000+ government workers on AI — and @innovateus.bsky.social US is making it happen.

Burnes Center Director @bethnoveck.bsky.social was featured on CBS6's Power & Politics this week. 👇

cbs6albany.com/news/power-a...

Students weigh optimism, concern as AI expert discusses democracy at Elon A show of hands inside Elon University’s LaRose Digital Theatre on April 15 revealed a clear mood — more students felt concerned about artificial intelligence than excited. That tension framed a campus conversation as Northeastern University professor of law, engineering, policy, communications and computer science Beth Noveck challenged students to rethink AI not just as a threat but as a potential tool to strengthen democracy.

Can AI strengthen democracy? The answer depends on who shapes it. @bethnoveck.bsky.social brought that challenge to @elonuniversity.bsky.social.

🔗 elonnewsnetwork.com/article/2026/04/students-weigh-optimism-concern-as-ai-expert-discusses-democracy-at-elon

But Grok Said So! How AI is Enabling Political Polarization Across contexts like India, where author Anirudh Dinesh’s family lives, AI chatbots such as xAI’s Grok are increasingly used not to inform but to generate arguments that reinforce existing political views, creating “generative echo chambers.” Unlike passive social media exposure, users actively prompt AI to validate positions, often producing confident but inaccurate claims that go unchecked. While some research suggests AI can moderate views in neutral dialogue, real-world use skews toward advocacy, compounded by low verification and high trust in outputs. The result is that AI may not just reflect polarization, but actively deepen it, depending on how these systems are designed and used.

In this #GlobalAIWatch, Anirudh Dinesh draws on his family's experience in India to show how tools like xAI’s Grok reinforce beliefs—creating “generative echo chambers.” Mixed research suggests this could shape polarization globally.

AI can cut public funding, or help communities access it.

In @fastcompany.com, @bethnoveck.bsky.social shows how #GrantWell helps local governments navigate complexity and claim the funds already set aside for them.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/grantwe...

🔗 www.fastcompany.com/91525531/gra...

The New Human Resilience Challenges Posed by AI In “Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age,” based on insights from 386 global experts, a warning emerges: the greatest risk is not a single catastrophic event, but a slow drift toward diminished human agency, fragmented reality, and growing dependence on automated systems. Lee Raine and Janna Anderson reflect on how, as AI becomes society’s invisible operating system, individual resilience is no longer enough. The report argues for urgent, coordinated action to build resilience as shared infrastructure across governments, institutions, and communities to ensure people can still question, contest, and shape the systems increasingly shaping them.

Reboot Democracy's #ResearchRadar: AI’s biggest risk isn’t a single failure, it’s a slow drift. Less agency, weaker shared reality, more automated dependence.

@elonuniversity.bsky.social's 386 experts say resilience must be built as infrastructure, not left to individuals.

👏 Our AI for Impact program is featured in @usnews.com
based on recent @newamerica.org reports co-authored by Burnes Center's Professor Neil Kleiman.

Universities putting AI to work for the public good. 🔗

@northeasternu.bsky.social

www.usnews.com/education/u-...

We’re launching #RethinkingRegulationwithAI.

Across countries, regulation is growing faster than institutions can process.

ReguLens, built with @ilo.org, helps organizations analyze proposals and engage earlier in policy debates.

Read more: rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/policy-...

In #ResearchRadar, @sverhulst.bsky.social and Adam Zable examine how the International Monetary Fund’s StatGPT report reframes data access in the age of AI.

AI is the interface, not source of truth. This is the "Fourth Wave of Open Data."

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/researc...

AI is changing how public communication is produced. It’s also raising the bar for credibility.

New from John Wihbey + Jill Abramson: what 1,400+ public communicators learned about using AI for gaining trust.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/amplify...

When a new government takes power, innovative public programs often vanish — along with everything that made them work. The Burnes Center's Sofía Bosch Gómez is making sure that knowledge isn’t lost.

news.northeastern.edu/2026/04/01/p...

@nuglobalnews.bsky.social

Free online courses, workshops and coaching programs InnovateUS provides no-cost, at-your-own pace, and live learning on data, digital and innovation skills for public servants like you.

Sign-up for a free workshop or course series: innovate-us.org

Steps Leaders Can Take to Center People Making the government more people-centered starts with leaders. Amira Boland explains her experience.

For @newamerica.org, Amira Choueiki Boland discusses how public sector leaders can drive people-centered policy development and delivery, highlighting @innovateus.bsky.social live learning on data, digital, innovation, and AI skills.

Read more: www.newamerica.org/insights/ste...

Designing Democratic Engagement in the AI Era: Three Hard Choices Designing a one-hour course on democratic engagement and AI means confronting genuinely hard questions about representativeness, political framing, and audience, where thoughtful experts disagree, and every choice involves a real tradeoff. Over the past week, we drafted, debated, and cut more than 25,000 words to a working script, informed by over 300 comments from 50 advisors across 24 countries and a room full of democratic theorists in Barcelona. This post explains the three hardest calls we had to make and why we made them.

In this #GlobalAIWatch piece, @bethnoveck.bsky.social shares 3 hard choices in designing AI-enabled public engagement, based on input from 50 experts across 24 countries.

Without action, engagement becomes performative.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/designi...

Meet the New NYC Health Commissioner | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC Alister Martin, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, talks about his background and what he plans to prioritize in his new job.

📻 Dr. @alisterfmartin.bsky.social Burnes Center Senior Fellow and Commissioner of the @nychealthy.bsky.social joins @wnyc.org radio to discuss his work and priorities in his new role.

Tune in to hear more! www.wnyc.org/story/meet-t...

@linkhealth.bsky.social @ahdemocracy.bsky.social

The Next Frontier: AI, Equity, and the Future of Public Benefits Millions of Americans miss out on health and food assistance benefits due to fragmented systems and complex enrollment processes. This piece explores how Link Health, in partnership with the AI for Impact program, is combining AI tools with human navigators to rethink how public benefits are delivered in healthcare settings. It argues that the next frontier is better evidence. States should fund research to compare enrollment approaches, portal design, and navigator support to determine which improve health outcomes and guide smarter public investment.

Alister Martin, Ar’Sheill Monsanto, Timothy Scheinert, and Austin Tsai ask: how do we use AI not just to make public systems easier to use, but to improve outcomes?

@linkhealth.bsky.social shows one path. But we still lack evidence on what works at scale.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/ai-equi...

From Access to Opportunity: How Governments Can Build Inclusive AI Growing up in Kakuma refugee camp, Nhial Deng experienced what it means to be excluded from opportunities. Returning years later, he saw young people using AI not as aid, but as a tool to build skills, income, and futures in real time. This piece argues that AI is already functioning as an economic opportunity layer, but one that remains uneven and fragile without intentional design. Drawing on examples from Canada, Singapore, and Kenya, Deng outlines how governments can move from accidental access to structured opportunity by connecting AI to jobs, embedding it in trusted institutions, and building safeguards alongside deployment.

Nhial Deng grew up in Kakuma refugee camp, excluded from opportunity.

Years later, he saw young people using AI to build skills, income, and futures.

AI is already an economic opportunity layer, but fragile without design.

Read: rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/from-ac...

Reducing Friction in Federal Funding: How Massachusetts Built GrantWell Massachusetts municipalities are eligible for an estimated $17.5 billion in federal funding, but accessing it is often harder than securing it. In partnership with the Massachusetts Federal Funds and Infrastructure Office, the Burnes Center for Social Change is launching GrantWell, an AI-powered tool designed to reduce the friction that keeps many communities from applying. Anjith Prakash, lead engineer at GrantWell, explains how the tool helps users find opportunities, understand requirements, and move local needs into competitive applications, expanding access to funding.

$17.5B in federal funding is available to MA communities, but much of it goes untapped.

GrantWell, built with the state, uses AI to help municipalities find, understand, and apply for grants, starting from real community needs.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/reducin...

Finding the "True Thing": Lessons in Storytelling, Trust, and Institutional Brand  In this post, Eileen Twiggs draws on lessons from the InnovateUS workshop "Effective Use of Social Media: Storytelling, Trust, and Institutional Brand" to explore how public servants can move beyond risk-averse messaging to tell more human, compelling stories. From finding the “true thing” in everyday work to using AI as a thoughtful teammate, these practical strategies show how to communicate more effectively in today’s fast-moving information environment and rebuild trust one story at a time.

Government comms doesn’t have to be boring.

Find the “true thing,” talk like a human, be platform-native, and treat AI like a teammate, not a substitute.

Trust isn’t built through perfect messaging. It’s built through real stories.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/storyte...

Built Against Its People: Iran’s AI Infrastructure of Control Dr. Sara Bazoobandi examines how Iran’s doctrine of “knowledge jihad” shaped the development of its digital and AI infrastructure, transforming technology into an instrument of state control. The piece traces how this system, built for surveillance and centralized authority, has also created strategic fragility, offering a cautionary lesson for democracies designing the foundations of AI governance.

Iran didn’t just adopt AI, it conscripted it.

This #GlobalAIWatch by Dr. Sara Bazoobandi shows how ideology shaped a centralized AI system built for control and why that design creates hidden fragility.

A must-read for democracies building AI infrastructure.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/iran-ai...

What We Learned from 50 Experts About Designing Democratic Engagement in the AI Era More than 50 practitioners, researchers, and civic technologists from 24 countries reviewed the draft curriculum for Designing Democratic Engagement for the AI Era, providing over 300 comments and suggestions. The feedback, relayed by Dane Gambrell and Sarah Hubbard, highlighted the need for clearer guidance on institutional readiness, trust, inclusion, and the risks and limits of AI in public participation. This post summarizes the key themes that emerged, explains how AI tools were used to synthesize the feedback, and outlines the next steps in developing the course.

Drafting a course on Designing Democratic Engagement for the AI Era, we asked 50+ experts from 24 countries for feedback.

The result: 300+ comments. Using AI, we synthesized the input into 12 improvements to the curriculum.

What we learned ↓
🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/ai-demo...

The Case for Civic AI Compacts with Higher Education Cities often treat nearby universities as occasional partners rather than strategic collaborators. But as artificial intelligence reshapes local economies and public services, that relationship may need to change. Drawing on a new policy brief, The AI Lab Next Door, Neil Kleiman argues that city–university “compacts” can transform transactional ties into intentional partnerships, helping communities harness the growing AI capacity already taking shape on college campuses.

In today's #ResearchRadar, Neil Kleiman explores how civic AI compacts can connect city governments with campus AI capacity w/ @techanddemocracy.newamerica.org

📖 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/civic-a...

📰 www.route-fifty.com/artificial-i...

Can AI help save us bureaucrats from our bureaucracy? InnovateUS and the Center for Civic Futures are launching a new series exploring how AI can help human services agencies reduce administrative burden and improve benefits delivery. Drawing on Robert Asaro-Angelo’s experience as Commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development, this post examines how agencies can use AI to help the public sector improve benefits delivery, reduce administrative burden, and better support both frontline staff and the people they serve.

How can AI help human services agencies work better for both staff and the people they serve?

Robert Asaro-Angelo reflects on lessons from leading @stateofnewjersey.bsky.social's Department of Labor to launch a new workshop series: AI and Human Services.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/ai-huma...

The AI Lab Next Door - New America Why universities are valuable AI partners for local governments, and how to build and leverage those relationships.

HigherEd has have become increasingly adept at using AI.

#RethinkAI’s Neil Kleiman, Eric Gordon & @mai-ling1.bsky.social emphasize the strategic opportunity between universities & local governments to help build AI in the public sector.

Read on @newamerica.org: www.newamerica.org/insights/the...

South Australia needs its own sovereign AI capability In this commentary, originally published by InDaily South Australia, Matt Ryan argues that artificial intelligence can help governments deliver more effective, human-centered services, but only if it builds public trust and democratic legitimacy. Drawing on examples from Spain, San Francisco, and the UK, he outlines a path for South Australia to develop “sovereign AI capability.” His proposal focuses on three priorities: participatory AI governance, stronger public-sector AI skills, and reinvesting efficiency gains into public services, ensuring AI improves government while strengthening democracy.

#SouthAustralia is debating how AI could improve government services. But efficiency alone won’t build trust.

New commentary from Matt Ryan explores lessons on participatory AI governance, public-sector capability, and reinvesting efficiency gains.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/sa-need...

Assembly Required: A Conversation with Lorelei Kelly on Deliberative Technology and Congressional Reform In this conversation with Elana Banin, Lorelei Kelly argues that rebuilding democratic resilience requires redesigning the institutional infrastructure connecting citizens to Congress. Drawing on constitutional history and emerging technologies, she explores how deliberative technology and AI could help revive the First Amendment’s promises of assembly and petition for the digital age.

A conversation with @loreleikelly.bsky.social on how deliberative technology and AI could help modernize the connection between citizens and Congress.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/assembl...

AI agents will soon interact directly with government systems, querying data, navigating portals, and generating traffic across public infrastructure.

Boston is testing a governance layer using #ModelContextProtocol.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/boston-...

🔗www.fastcompany.com/91504876/bos...

Using AI to Help States Break Down Barriers to Skills-Based Hiring Artificial intelligence is often portrayed as a force that will destroy jobs. In this essay, Seth Harris argues that it can also expand opportunity. By using AI to identify and remove unnecessary college degree requirements in state hiring, governments can reduce barriers to public employment, address racial and class disparities, and fill critical roles more efficiently. Backed by new research underway from the Burnes Center for Social Change, supported by the GitLab Foundation, he outlines how thoughtfully deployed AI can break down barriers and accelerate the shift to skills-based hiring.

AI is often framed as a threat to jobs. But it can also expand access to work.

@mrsethharris.bsky.social shows how states can use AI to identify and remove unnecessary degree requirements and advance skills-based hiring.

A practical path to equity and efficiency:
rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/ai-for-...

Who Will Shape AI in the Public Interest The current controversy over the Pentagon’s AI contracts reveals a deeper issue: governments are shaping the AI market through procurement in the wrong ways or not at all, failing to make demands that AI strengthen democracy and improve governance. As AI becomes core public infrastructure, public institutions must use their purchasing power deliberately by requiring portability, accountability, and interoperability and prioritizing use in the public interest. This post explains the public conversation we are having about public and democratic AI andhow governments can buy, build, and govern AI on the public’s terms.

Recent tensions between the U.S. Dept. of Defense and Anthropic highlight that government isn’t just regulating AI, it’s one of its largest customers.

Procurement shapes markets. Will we shape AI by default or by design?

Read more: rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/public-ai