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Dear MIT GOV/LAB Community,
At this moment of near constant change —political, technical, social— it can feel hard to find grounding. At MIT GOV/LAB, we are thinking about tools to support online deliberation and discussion that help us to pause and think about others’ perspectives. We are looking for ways to get people to talk to try and understand each other over things they disagree with —no small task given information overload, lack of time, and the discomfort of difficult conversations.
We’re asking is there a way technological developments, like new AI tools, can help restore civility? What can AI do or not do for democracy? Is there a way to build agreement and understanding using online tools?
On campus, research director Lula Chen led a Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) scholars group this fall through a new mini syllabus on generative AI and democracy. In the spring, undergraduate students completed capstone research projects about how polarization is impacted by issues such as AI vs. human-generated news content, social media algorithms, and AI-integrated deliberative platforms, and presented findings to a packed audience.
Our collaboration with colleagues at Stanford on deliberation.io is engaging with these questions in experimental research, including a pilot with Washington, DC. Read more about our work building and evaluating pro-democracy platforms in the Digitalist Papers, PNAS Nexus, and at MIT (mentioned in the Boston Review).
Lastly, MIT GOV/LAB founder Lily Tsai was featured in MIT’s Spectrum Magazine on the test of democracy and what makes democracies work. Lots to read and lots to unpack in this moment of change. We hope to be in touch soon!
Some additional updates below from work with collaborators and research affiliates:
- Report back from TICTeC. How can AI and civic tech build consensus for climate policy and Include the voices of future generations? MIT GOV/LAB hosted a workshop at TICTeC where participants had a chance to test out a new online deliberation tool and talk to someone from 2048.
- The Geography of AI Adoption: Guest post by former Practitioner in Residence Luke Jordan and co-authors on AI’s impact on jobs and the economy. He also published “Mind the Gap” on training a machine learning model on World Bank projects in The World Bank Economic Review.
- This Week in Social Science (TWISS). In a weekly newsletter, MIT GOV/LAB research affiliate Chris Grady summarizes the latest social science research for a general audience on timely topics.
- MIT GOV/LAB Seed Grant. Clemente Sanchez, MIT Political Science PhD Candidate, discusses his field research on tracing anti-deforestation enforcement in the Brazilian Amazon.
- How Can Citizens’ Voices Enhance Governance? This groundwork piece by practitioner-in-residence Gideon Too from Busara is a practical tool to help researchers conduct more thoughtful behavioral science research in international development contexts.
- World Development publication. Do government accountability and responsiveness enhance support for property taxes? Experimental evidence from China by Minh Trinh and Lily Tsai.
- The Science of Respect. Professors Lily Tsai and Rebecca Saxe receive funding for their new project through the MIT Human Insight Collaborative.
Photo by Sasha Rollinger.