An Essay Series Part of the Democratic Legitimacy for AI Initiative

Democracy has undergone profound changes over the past decade, shaped by rapid technological, social, and political transformations. Across the globe, citizens are demanding more meaningful and sustained engagement in governance—especially around emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), which increasingly shape the contours of public life.

From world-leading experts in deliberative democracy, civic technology, and AI governance we introduce a seven-part essay series exploring how deliberative democratic processes like citizen’s assemblies and civic tech can strengthen AI governance. The essays follow from a workshop on “Democratic Legitimacy for AI: Deliberative Approaches to Inclusive Governance” held in Vancouver in March 2025, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. The series and workshop were generously supported by funding from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Mila, and Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

Essay Authors: Liz Barry, Executive Director, Metagov

Claudia Chwalisz, Founder and CEO, DemocracyNext

Joseph Gubbels, Political Theory Fellow, Metagov

Julian Lam, Project Manager, Democratic Legitimacy for AI

Lawrence Lessig, Professor, Harvard Law School

Peter MacLeod, Chair, Citizens’ Assemblies on Democratic Expression (CADE)

Aaron Maniam, Fellow of Practice and Director, Digital Transformation Education, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Deb Roy, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Co-Founder, Cortico

Micah L. Sifry, Co-founder, Civic Tech Field Guide & Publisher, The Connector

Alice Siu, Associate Director at Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab

Sonja Solomun, Deputy Director, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy

Audrey Tang, Mozilla Foundation, Project Liberty Institute, and supported by funding from the Omidyar Network