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.
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.