ABOUT THE PROJECT

Democracy today faces numerous challenges, including the loss of trust in EU institutions, citizens’ disillusionment and declining engagement, increasing political polarization, online disinformation and politically manipulated information, and a growing gap between citizens and elected representatives.

The AI4Deliberation project is designed to address these challenges and facilitate the institutionalization of modern deliberative processes. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and the development of citizens’ competencies following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity for a new generation of digital deliberations. These deliberations will be:

• Based on a solid democratic theory,
• Multimodal (video, audio, text),
• User-friendly and accessible,
• Gamified (using skill points, result tracking, missions, and avatars),
• Large-scale and supported by AI for summarization, moderation, fact-checking, and detecting hate speech and toxicity,
• Easy to adopt and institutionalize.

The goal of the AI4Deliberation project is to provide robust and ethical AI-powered tools and comprehensive guidelines to help governments implement, use, and evaluate modern digital deliberations. The project envisions equipping governments with:

• Theoretically solid and empirically tested deliberative processes supported by AI,
• A comprehensive framework with practical guidelines,
• A set of AI tools enabling the design, institutionalization, operation, and evaluation of transparent, ethical, inclusive, multimodal, gamified, and large-scale citizen deliberations.

This approach will contribute to more active and inclusive citizenship and increase trust in institutions based on the rule of law.

To achieve these ambitious goals, the project brings together leading experts in deliberative democracy, artificial intelligence, argument mining, law, and ethics, as well as deliberation platforms. Four large-scale pilot projects will be conducted at the city, national, and international levels, covering key topics such as climate change and long COVID.

The role of the Institute of Criminology is to ensure ethical oversight and compliance. This includes guiding the consortium in adhering to ethical principles and relevant national and European legislation. Our responsibilities cover areas such as personal data protection and the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence technologies. The project’s ethical lead is Prof. Dr. Aleš Završnik.

Project Type: HORIZON Research and Innovation Action

Grant Agreement Number: 101178806

Duration: 1. 11. 2024 – 31. 10. 2027

More about the project: project website

Project team

Aleš Završnik

Saša Krajnc