The current participatory democracy methods to engage citizens into policymaking are quite rudimental and most of them offer one-way only communication and fail to enable inclusive dialogue between citizens and institutions. Additionally, the deliberative spaces that are available today to co-create ideas and bridge these ideas to actions across diverse institutions and expertise are highly inadequate.
Taking in consideration the necessity of acknowledging the increasingly influential role played by technology in deliberative democracy, the Horizon EU projects NeuroClima and Orbis organised the joint event “Tech(&)Democracy”, at Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, under the scope of the Milano Digital Week 2024.
The event consisted of three thematic conversations with influential voices, built upon preliminary insights from the projects, which experiment with new socio-technical models and solutions to promote a more deliberative and inclusive democracy.
The first chapter, dedicated to the role of technology in supporting “informed” decision-making and policy-making processes, counted with the participation of Marco Deseriis and Roberta Tassi. According to the panel, technology can be leveraged not only to facilitate but also improve the participation and quality of deliberations in democratic processes. Technologies such as online collaborative platforms, AI and new technologies, and big data can widen engagement while providing deeper insights into issues. They can help in identifying patterns and trends and enable the contribution of opinions and perspectives that are inclusive and truly representative of society. For instance, AI tools can help in structuring large amounts of input from e-deliberation platforms, making sense of citizen feedback, and identifying consensus points or major areas of disagreement.
The following chapter delved into digital literacy and the awareness of citizens of technology use in deliberation, with the insights from Davide Leo and Franz Purpura. It is key that citizens understand not just the functionalities but also the implications of these technologies. It includes transparency about data usage, the workings of AI algorithms in public decision-making, and how these technologies can be used to manipulate or enhance the deliberative process. Increasing awareness can empower citizens, ensuring they are equipped to participate more actively and critically in tech-augmented democratic processes.
To conclude the event, the third chapter delved into AI-enhanced deliberative democracy with the interventions of Alice Casiraghi, Alessandro Gandini and Maria Francesca Murru. It was highlighted that deliberative democracy emphasizes the importance of discussion and deliberation in the democratic process. It seeks to provide a platform where citizens can discuss, understand, and reflect on issues of public interest collectively. In a tech-supported or AI-boosted deliberative democracy, AI and other technologies are used to enhance these discussions. This could involve using AI to moderate discussions, ensuring that all voices are heard, or to provide real-time data and analytics that inform participants about the topics at hand. Additionally, AI could be employed to simulate the outcomes of certain decisions, giving participants a clearer understanding of potential results before a decision is made.
The joint event was an opportunity to enhance the outreach of both projects, exchange knowledge, foster debates, explore synergies between them and generate valuable content for joint dissemination.