This past November, Project Liberty Institute (PLI), in partnership with Georgetown’s Tech and Public Policy (TPP) program, hosted a Workshop on Deliberation, Governance and Decentralized Social Networks at the McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington, DC. The event brought together a diverse group of practitioners, researchers and students to explore and assess the role AI-assisted deliberation might play in helping online communities govern themselves.

Democratic governance can be unwieldy and challenging to design. Fortunately, tools exist to assist online communities in deliberating the pros and cons of policy– one such tool is digital deliberation. Traditionally, deliberative forms of democracy have been time-consuming, expensive, and conducted in person, with a representative selection of participants lasting days or weeks.

Technological advances, including AI applications, have moved deliberation into the 21st century. Today, deliberative decision-making can happen entirely online and produce meaningful results in hours – even minutes. Representativeness may still require up-front effort, but overall costs are relatively modest. Democratic governance is within reach of numerous online communities and platforms.