A multi-stakeholder event to look for concrete ways to support democracy, human judgement, and human agency in the context of increasingly pervasive AI, organised by the Centre for Data Futures (King’s College London) in collaboration with the Informational Democracy working group of the Max Planck Institute.

Summary:

How can we harness AI in support of democratic revival? How can we develop processes, methods, and policies to facilitate community-centred development of AI to support human agency and democracy? Is it technically and politically realistic to think that the AI, as a technology and as a socio-technical sphere, could support democratic revival rather than contribute to its erosion?

The event will bring in the same room decision-makers, researchers, community-enablers, and funders to develop a research and practice agenda to make AI a force for democratic revival.

The day will be structured around :

· A Keynote by Dame Diane Coyle (Cambridge, DBE FAcSS) with high-profile respondents

· A panel on how individual interpretability doesn’t shield us from collective deskilling

· A panel on how to move beyond ‘participation theatre'

· A collective design session and agenda-setting participatory activities

· A session led by Connected by Data's Participatory AI & Research Symposium

· A session led by the Informational Democracy working group of the Max Planck Institute

Programme

Time	Session
08:30	Registration and coffee
09:00	Welcome and framing
09:05	PAIRS-led participatory session, Connected by Data
10:05	Keynote by Prof. Diane Coyle, with respondents
11:00	Coffee
11:15	The evidence so far
11:30	Live broad listening, run as a working demonstration
12:05	Panel: Individually interpretable, collectively deskilled?
12:50	Lunch; rapporteur synthesises the broad listening
13:40	Design workshop: the participatory refinement challenge
15:00	Coffee
15:15	Provocation: the case against Participatory AI
15:30	Panel: How can we go beyond a mere ‘participation theater’?
16:15	Commitments: funders, regulators and the room respond
16:45	The democracy extension, led by the Informational Democracy group
17:45	Close
17:50	Drinks

This event is by invitation only