AI4Democracy Series 3: Applications of AI Tools to Enhance Legislative Engagement

The paper analyzes key areas where AI can enhance legislative engagement, with a focus on four main applications:

1. Making Information Accessible: AI can summarize and organize complex policy information, making it more digestible and accessible to the public. This reduces barriers to understanding and helps constituents engage more effectively with the law-making process.

2. Facilitating Expression: AI tools assist users in articulating their perspectives on policy issues. By guiding individuals in the expression of their thoughts, AI ensures that all voices are heard in the democratic process.

3. Supporting Deliberation: AI synthesizes public opinion, highlighting areas of consensus and controversy. This fosters inclusive and productive debates, ensuring that discussions on policy matters are well-informed and represent diverse viewpoints.

4. Monitoring Implementation: AI can track legislative outcomes, ensuring that the public’s input is reflected in policy decisions. This level of transparency holds governments accountable and reinforces public trust in the democratic process.

The paper stresses that technology is not neutral; it is developed and applied within the moral and cultural contexts of its creators. For those committed to enhancing public participation and democracy, it is essential to actively design technologies that support democratic processes, countering the negative impact of other societal and technological forces.

Risks and Mitigations

Public-facing AI systems face risks of mistrust and bias. To address these risks, Make.org’s Democratic Commons project aims to identify and correct biases in large language models (LLMs), ensuring fairer democratic applications. Transparency, clear AI disclosure, and early user feedback are essential to building public trust. Limiting AI use to tasks with low potential for harm can further mitigate risks.

Actionable Recommendations for Governments and Civic Organizations

1. Increase Access: Ensure AI tools break down complex policy information into understandable formats. Offer multilingual support and ensure accessibility across diverse communities to maximize engagement in legislative processes.

2. Foster Trust: Be transparent about AI’s role in decision-making processes by clearly disclosing how AI is used and how it processes data. Create a dedicated space for the public to review this information and ask questions. Build trust by providing regular updates and collecting feedback from users on AI’s performance.

3. Ensure Accountability: Use AI tools to track legislative decisions, linking public input directly to policy outcomes. Create dashboards or tools for citizens to follow how their feedback influences lawmaking, improving transparency and accountability.

4. Combat Manipulation: Implement robust security features such as captchas, fraud detection algorithms, and identity validation to prevent bots and malicious actors from undermining democratic processes. Regularly audit systems to stay ahead of emerging threats.

Future Directions for AI and Legislative Engagement

AI holds great potential to improve how citizens engage with legislative processes. Here are some key areas for future exploration:

• AI-Driven Transparency: Summarize voting records, legislative changes, and public testimony with AI for clearer insights into lawmaking.

• Monitoring Public Impact: Use AI to track how public input influences legislative outcomes and ensure feedback is acted upon.

• Citizen-Led Amendments: AI can trace changes in legislation based on public feedback, showing how citizen input shapes policy.

• AI in Public Debate: Track real-time public discourse and policy discussions using AI to keep citizens informed.

• Scaling AI for Local Governance: Encourage local governments to adopt AI tools for transparency and participation through smaller-scale experiments.

About the Collaborators

Make.org is a nonpartisan organization committed to empowering citizens and mobilizing civil society to bring about positive societal change. Over 10 million citizens and 1,000 associations across Europe have engaged with Make.org's tools for collective decision-making.

MAPLE (Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement) provides a suite of tools to enhance public engagement with the Massachusetts legislature. Its platform includes AI-enhanced features for organizing legislative data, submitting testimonies, and tracking bills, and its open-source codebase can be adapted to other jurisdictions.

For more information and to access the full report, visit the AI4Democracy page and download the paper.