democracy

Election officials are taking steps to mitigate potential chaos and distrust caused by prediction markets in the midterms, including new oaths for workers to prevent manipulation and aggression.

A subscriber-only MIT Technology Review roundtable explores the 'censorship-industrial complex' idea, how it moved from the right-wing fringe into US policy, and its implications for democracy and the internet.

Historian Jill Lepore discusses her new book 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,' arguing that tech companies are replacing democratic government functions and that Silicon Valley leaders misread science fiction. She criticizes Elon Musk and corporate power while insisting she is not anti-technology.

A speculative article explores how personal AIs that deeply know their users could enable continuous, high-bandwidth democratic deliberation, generating consensus proposals while preserving human veto power, though significant risks and safeguards are discussed.

A Guardian op-ed warns that AI-powered surveillance systems are becoming supercharged, capable of tracking public and private activities with real-time enforcement, which could chill social progress and democracy.

Anthropic is building a new Rule of Law team to study how AI impacts democratic institutions and the rule of law. They are hiring a Research Engineer with skills in AI development and legal/political science background.

Anthropic's CEO discusses the concept of a 'Mythos class premium-ness' in AI, warns about threats from China's open source AI, and argues that AI can be a force for democracy.

Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas, focuses not on AI itself but on longstanding issues of inequality, war, and power concentration. The pope argues that AI built by a small elite cannot serve the common good and calls for oversight and disarmament in the AI arms race.

An opinion piece argues for decentralized AI as a parallel system to centralized AI to ensure contestability and prevent uncontestable intelligence, comparing the tension to Hong Kong's relationship with mainland China.

The Democratic Tech Alliance held its first assembly in the European Parliament, bringing together diverse political groups to advocate for an EU tech ecosystem that supports democratic values and public interest, highlighting the urgency of reducing reliance on US tech platforms.

The article argues that AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are undermining democratic trust through misinformation while simultaneously embedding themselves in government to provide AI governance solutions.

Protovoters is an open-source tool that lets users build local voter files from public data and use them with standard geospatial software, aiming to replace expensive proprietary platforms like VAN or NationBuilder.