Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how we live, work, and communicate. But how will it change democracy?

 

Far from a distant or hypothetical force, the Rewiring Democracy demonstrates that AI is already influencing the drafting of legislation, regulatory enforcement, judicial rulings, and public discourse. These changes raise big questions: Who writes the rules in an AI age? Who benefits? And how do we ensure the public, not just corporations or autocrats, has a voice?

 

Join us for an engaging discussion between author and professor Bruce Schneier, Beth Coleman, professor and Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) director at iSchool, and Ron Deibert, professor and director of the Citizen Lab, as they examine how AI is influencing legislation, public services, the courts, and civic participation—and what we can do to ensure these technologies strengthen rather than weaken democratic systems.

 

 

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a "security guru" by the Economist. He is the New York Times best-selling author of 14 books -- including A Hacker's Mind -- as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter Crypto-Gram and blog Schneier on Security are read by over 250,000 people. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and AccessNow, and an advisory board member of EPIC and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.

 

Beth Coleman, is an Associate Professor of Data & Cities at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (UTM) and the Faculty of Information, where she directs the City as Platform lab. Working in the disciplines of Science and Technology Studies, generative aesthetics, and Black poesis, her research focuses on smart technology & machine learning, urban data and civic engagement, and generative arts. She is the author of Hello Avatar and multiple articles, including “Race as Technology.” She was a 2021 Google Artists and Machines Intelligence awardee and is a continuing Senior visiting researcher with Google Brain and Responsible AI. She is a founding member of the Trusted Data Sharing group and incoming research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society.

 

Ron Deibert, (OOnt, PhD, University of British Columbia) is Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.