The knowledge of AI in relation to governance is at its infancy but there are signs that it could be of relevance and interest to participative approaches to local development and this makes it worth exploring it.
We provide below some hints drawn from a growing pool of insights and examples of specific tools and would welcome more contributions on this theme.
Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance
This book, The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance, explores the concepts, methodologies, and implications of collective intelligence for democratic governance, in the first comprehensive survey of this field.
It is illustrated by a collection of case studies and serves as a primer on collective intelligence applied to public challenges. It is addressed to public actors, academics and activists with an interest in applying collective intelligence in policymaking and administration to explore its potential, both to foster policy innovations and reinvent democracy.
Reinvent local government through collective intelligence and artificial intelligence
An interesting example in this book is the section on Reinvent local government through collective intelligence and artificial intelligence. For instance, to incorporate citizens’ collective intelligence in local policy making, a municipality in Denmark invented a knowledge bridge relying on AI. They designed an online deliberation platform integrating artificial intelligence/natural language processing (NLP) mechanisms to sort and categorize citizen insights, making engagement of a larger number of citizens possible.
Tools
There are also many digital tools available that could be of relevance to local development. The European Commission’s Community of practice of the Competence Centre on participatory and deliberative democracy has documented about a hundred digital tools to ease deliberation and decision making at all levels including at the local level.
The Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy aims to respond to the increasing demand from the European Commission, EU institutions and countries for capacity to support participatory and deliberative projects and policies at the EU level.
Other examples, worth noting, include web-based format structured debates on topics such as land development and public policy – see the example of the carto-debat debate platform, and a variety of other contributions in relation to creativity, collective intelligence and public governance – for example see https://www.dreamocracy.eu/
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