Beth Simone Noveck
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bethnoveck.bsky.social
Beth Simone Noveck
@bethnoveck.bsky.social
1K followers 200 following 190 posts
BLOG: https://rebootdemocracy.ai. All things AI policy, democracy, government. BIO: https://thegovlab.org/beth-simone-noveck.html. Prof #AIforImpact #InnovateUS @Northeastern @BurnesCenter @TheGovLab, Chief AI Strategist @NJGOV, @OSTP44 BLOG
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bethnoveck.bsky.social
Today's #GlobalAIWatch blog by @celiazafra.bsky.social and @pr3ssh.net h.net explores how transparency fails when public data is unusable. The QHLD tool shows what Spain's Congress really prioritizes and why civic tech struggles to adopt AI.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/is-your...
Is Your Parliament Transparent or Just Performing? Making Public Data Understandable Opens the Door to Citizen Engagement
Political Watch’s “What Our Representatives Do” tool (QHLD) organizes thousands of congressional initiatives into clear, searchable themes, making political priorities visible, comparable, and actiona...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
I am redoing the Solving Public Problems course for the AI era. I want your input: What should every public problem-solver learn now? What risks or opportunities do you see?

Read + share → rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/solving...
Solving Public Problems with Artificial Intelligence
The Solving Public Problems course has helped learners worldwide tackle complex challenges. The course teaches how to leverage technology, data, and collective wisdom in our communities to design powe...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 25, 2025 at 2:14 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
On the #RebootDemocracy Blog, unions are setting real limits on surveillance, algorithmic management, and AI-driven job cuts, while also using AI to strengthen organizing and worker voice.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/big-tec...
Big Tech Wants AI Without Rules. Here’s How Workers are Fighting Back
AI is reshaping the workplace faster than public policy can keep up, often in ways that expand corporate power, weaken worker rights, and undermine democratic oversight. But across sectors, workers an...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 24, 2025 at 5:03 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
“Expertise comes from experience and experience comes from experimentation,” says @thegovlab.org @burnescenter.bsky.social Prof and Boston CIO Santi Garces at the European Cities Conference about the need to try new ways of working.
November 21, 2025 at 11:36 AM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
Miss the news this week in AI + democracy + governance? We didn’t. Here are the must-reads. ⬇️

rebootdemocracy.ai/newsthatcaug...
News That Caught Our Eye #85 - News That Caught Our Eye
Princeton’s Mihir Kshirsagar breaks down why predictive-policing algorithms fail and how to distinguish meaningful diagnostic tools from misguided prediction products. Congress renews its push to bloc
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 20, 2025 at 2:44 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
From citizens’ assemblies to data cooperatives, Maine is piloting the future of democratic infrastructure. Highlights from the Foundations for the Digital Commons convening ⬇️

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/foundat...
Foundations for the Digital Commons
In late October, the Roux Institute hosted Foundations for the Digital Commons with Bernstein Shur and RadicalxChange, convening technologists, policymakers, civic innovators, journalists, and funders...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 19, 2025 at 4:18 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
New in our #ResearchRadar series: today’s AI agents don’t reason the way our markets and regulatory systems assume.

Elana Banin breaks down new research from Hadfield & Koh, and why it matters for democratic governance.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/researc...
Research Radar: An Economy of AI Agents
AI agents are beginning to make market-shaping decisions. Hadfield and Koh’s new study reveals why this shift is significant. Current agents do not reason like economists, do not reflect human prefere...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
Predictive policing is failing because it predicts police activity, not crime.

A new piece on the #RebootDemocracy Blog by Mihir Kshirsagar of @princetoncitp.bsky.social breaks down how diagnostic data can actually reduce harm and improve safety.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/why-goo...
Why “Good Guys” Shouldn’t Use AI like the “Bad Guys”: The Failure of Predictive Policing
This essay argues that predictive policing continues to fail not because police departments lack data, but because they are using the wrong kind of data, in the wrong way. Applying low-stakes commerci...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
“Design for trust. Build for empathy.”

In a new #GlobalAIWatch piece for the #RebootDemocracy blog, Tarjimly CEO Atif Javed shares how the translation platform utilizes AI to amplify, rather than replace, human connection.

📖 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/designi...
Designing AI for Trust: Lessons from Tarjimly’s Translation Platform for Humanitarian Action
When refugees needed language support, Tarjimly turned everyday volunteers into lifelines. In this reflection, CEO Atif Javed traces how the platform evolved from a Facebook Messenger experiment into ...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 12, 2025 at 2:41 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
🇺🇸 On Veterans Day tomorrow we honor those who served.
But behind the flags and parades, the Air Force is quietly turning its bases into AI business parks.

3,000 acres. 50-year leases. No public oversight.

No community input, no oversight, half-century leases. 🧵
Governing AI: The Air Force’s AI Land Rush
The Air Force is quietly auctioning off slices of its bases for private AI data centers. They call it innovation; it looks like privatization. Fifty-year leases, 3,000 acres of military land, and no p...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
Fresh reads on how AI is reshaping governance—from civic participation in Brazil to trust and transparency in tech.

Catch this week’s News That Caught Our Eye: rebootdemocracy.ai/newsthatcaug...
News That Caught Our Eye #83 - News That Caught Our Eye
Brazil is pioneering AI-powered participatory governance at scale, processing input from 1.4 million citizens and turning public proposals into policy reports. From Maine’s 33 recommendations for resp
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
🇧🇷 Brazil is turning 1.5M civic votes into real policy with AI.

Christiana Freitas & Ricardo Poppi demonstrate how a new open-source system is enabling the processing of public input at scale and strengthening participatory democracy.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/global-...

#GlobalAIWatch
November 5, 2025 at 4:08 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
The Agentic State is bold and worth reading, but many problems it tackles can be solved without automation.

Before we turn to agents, we need to fix the systems that are being automated.

🔗 rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/researc...
Research Radar: The Emperor's New Agents - Why AI Won't Fix Broken Government
The Agentic State is an ambitious and inspiring blueprint for rebuilding government around AI agents that can act and decide autonomously. It powerfully diagnoses real failures in how the public secto...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 4, 2025 at 1:50 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
We don’t need to fear AI. But we do need to learn how to use it wisely.

In my new post, I ask: What if we treated AI like the fish counter, learning to weigh risks and read the labels?

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/the-ai-...
The AI Fish Counter: Teaching Ourselves to Use AI—Before It Uses Us
The danger isn’t that AI will make us dumber—it’s that governments, companies, and schools won’t make us smarter with it. As policymakers stall and corporations automate, the burden of using AI wisely...
rebootdemocracy.ai
November 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
🎃 Recovering from a Halloween candy hangover? We have the cure: FREE upskilling courses and workshops in public engagement, data literacy, AI & more. By public servants, for public servants (open to all!). Way better than another fun-size Snickers! innovate-us.org/%F0%9F%8D%AB
https://innovate-us.org/🍫
November 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
AI doomerism misleads. In his latest #RebootDemocracy piece, Dane Gambrell argues we must govern real harms—like surveillance and labor exploitation—not vague fears of “superintelligence.” Read via #GlobalAIWatch: rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/governi...
Governing the Undefined: Why the Debate Over Superintelligence Misses the Point
As headlines warn of “superintelligent AI” threatening human extinction, a new open letter reignites familiar fears. But beneath the apocalyptic rhetoric lies a deeper problem. The narrative around ar...
rebootdemocracy.ai
October 29, 2025 at 2:45 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
In today’s powerful new #RebootDemocracy post, civic technologists Neil Kleiman, Mai-Ling Garcia, and Eric Gordon reflect on the hard lessons from the past and propose a new governance model: Adaptation, Listening, and Trust.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/rethink...
Re-thinking AI: How a Group of Civic Technologists Discovered the Power of AI to Rebuild Trust in Government
After two years of research, the RethinkAI collaborative released Making AI Work for the Public—a comprehensive field review of how U.S. governments adopt AI. Since 2019, over 1,600 AI-related bills h...
rebootdemocracy.ai
October 27, 2025 at 4:06 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
Those in NYC: Curb is putting state propaganda (Newsmax) on Taxi TV! Delete the app — use your card or cash to pay for taxis.
October 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
🗞️ What caught our eye this week?

Read the full roundup of democracy, governance, and AI news from around the world:
🌐 rebootdemocracy.ai/newsthatcaug...

#RebootDemocracy #AIforGovernance #GlobalAIWatch #NewsThatCaughtOurEye
October 23, 2025 at 3:59 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
In 2008, we invited 125,000 Americans to share ideas with the Obama transition team. We got 44,000 responses, and no way to process it.

Today, the open-source AI tool, DIPAS turns public input into structured insight, helping cities listen better and act faster.

rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/how-ham...
How Hamburg is Turning Resident Comments into Actionable Insight
Officials in Hamburg had long struggled with the fact that while citizens submitted thousands of comments on planning projects, only a fraction could realistically be read and processed. Making sense ...
rebootdemocracy.ai
October 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
The Agentic State project just dropped a new Vision Statement.

Back in June, I unpacked the original whitepaper and asked: Can AI help us build institutions worthy of public trust?

📖 Read my take → rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/agentic...

#AgenticState #AIforGovernance #RebootDemocracy
Research Radar: The Agentic State: A 20-Year Wish List, Finally Within Reach?
This week’s Research Radar highlights The Agentic State, an ambitious whitepaper arguing that AI agents could reshape the core functions of government. It’s a timely vision for public sector transform...
rebootdemocracy.ai
October 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
Not too late, join us now and hear about how the City of Hamburg is using AI to do large-scale public engagement: innovate-us.org/defining-pro...
Workshop: Defining Problems with the Public
InnovateUS provides no-cost, at-your-own pace, and live learning on data, digital and innovation skills for public servants like you.
innovate-us.org
October 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
This week’s roundup shows what it means to build “public AI” that’s open, trustworthy, and democratic.

From New York’s civil servant training to Spain’s AI audits to a civic map of NYC’s public spaces

📖 NTCOE #80: rebootdemocracy.ai/newsthatcaug...
News That Caught Our Eye #80 - News That Caught Our Eye
New America’s Anne-Marie Slaughter says states are becoming the laboratories of democratic AI—building “public AI” that is open, trustworthy, and rooted in the public good. This week’s stories bring t
rebootdemocracy.ai
October 16, 2025 at 4:02 PM
bethnoveck.bsky.social
@slaughteram.bsky.social closing remarks at the National Gathering for State AI Leaders have stayed with me.

At @innovateus.bsky.social we’re helping states build that future, where AI strengthens trust, participation, and public purpose.

Her reflections:
rebootdemocracy.ai/blog/new-ame...
New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter Reflects on the National Gathering for State AI Leaders
States aren’t merely engaged in how America adapts artificial intelligence; they are key to determining how the U.S. can thrive with the technology. This summer, Princeton University’s Center for Info...
rebootdemocracy.ai
October 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM