Artificial Intelligence and Deliberative Democracy

MS&E 10SC

Deliberative democracy is a political theory that holds that democracy should be based on informed, respectful, and inclusive public deliberation. In this SoCo course, we explore the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and deliberative democracy, and examine how AI can be used to support and enhance the democratic process through deliberative democracy. This course will focus on the use of AI in the Stanford Online Deliberation Platform (a collaboration between the Crowdsourced Democracy Team and Deliberative Democracy Lab, both at Stanford), the ethics of AI and democracy, and the potential for AI to support deliberation and participation. The course will also explore the challenges and limitations of using AI in a democratic context and the need for effective regulation and governance of AI.

Examples of Field Trips and Guest Speakers

Past guest speakers have come from OpenAI, Meta, McKinsey&Co, the AI & Democracy Foundation, Google Deepmind, and startups such as Lirvana Labs.

Outside of the classroom, students practiced collaborative decision making through a cooking class, an escape room, and coming to a consensus agreement on the best snacks available at Trader Joe’s.

What Comes After SoCo?

Students have gone on to major in Symbolic Systems and Computer Science as well as International Relations, Political Science, and many other topics. The series of guest speakers helped students understand tech careers, and enabled them to make a final decision on their major. Others found clues to internships. One found a career track and potential capstone project; another joined a lab on campus to work on research here.

Meet the Instructor(s)

Ashish Goel

Professor of Management Science and Engineering and, by courtesy, of Computer Science

Ashish Goel is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering and (by courtesy) Computer Science at Stanford University. He is the Director of the Crowdsourced Democracy Team. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford in 1999, and was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California from 1999 to 2002. His research interests lie in the design, analysis, and applications of algorithms.

Alice Siu

Alice Siu is Associate Director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab and Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Communication at Stanford University, with a focus in political communication, deliberative democracy, and public opinion, and her B.A. degrees in Economics and Public Policy and M.A. degree in Political Science, also from Stanford. Siu has advised policymakers and political leaders around the world, at various levels of government, including leaders in China, Brazil, and Argentina. Her research interests in deliberative democracy include what happens inside deliberation, such as examining the effects of socio-economic class in deliberation, the quality of deliberation, and the quality of arguments in deliberation.