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At a time when democracies are weakened by informational warfare surrounding elections, it is urgent to invest in a trusted sphere through mastered AI.
Make.org, Sciences Po, Sorbonne University, and the CNRS launch the first global program for research, experimentation, and deployment of open-source generative AI solutions in service of democracy.
The launch of the “Democratic Commons” program was announced by Marina Ferrari, French Secretary of State in charge of Digital, during the gathering of France's top AI talents around the President of France on 21 May.
Marina Ferrari, Secretary of State in charge of Digital : "France defends an open, fair and responsible approach to AI. This is the purpose of the projects we launched for the "Digital Commons" on artificial intelligence. I'm delighted to announce the winners today, including the 'Democratic Commons' project launch by Make.org with Sciences Po, Sorbonne University and the CNRS, which will provide solutions for assessing and correcting bias in AI systems to ensure their responsible use in democratic processes."
This project has attracted the world’s leading experts in ethical AI: Hugging Face, Mozilla.ai, Aspen Institute, Project Liberty Institute, and Genci.
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The "Democratic Commons" program will bring together over 50 researchers and engineers over a two-year period. Its primary objective is to develop and share a social science scientific framework for determining democratic principles applied to AI, a model for evaluating the biases of large language models (LLMs) against these principles, debiased LLMs, and citizen participation platforms that adhere to these principles.
To ensure the quality and relevance of the work, a Scientific Supervisory Board has been established, bringing together international luminaries such as Yochai Benkler (Berkman Klein Center / Harvard), Hélène Landemore (Yale), Karine Perset (OECD.ai), Asma Mhalla (EHESS/CNRS - Columbia), Raja Chatila (Sorbonne Université), Michelle Barsa (Omidyar Network), and Djamé Seddah (Inria).
In an increasingly polarized world, where technologies such as AI are often used by those who want to take advantage of the flaws in our open societies to exacerbate divisions, this French initiative and groundbreaking project is proud to present an alternative and positive vision of technology in service of democracy.
Axel Dauchez and Alicia Combaz, Founders of Make.org : "The increasing electoral abstention reflects a deep crisis of trust in democratic institutions. This distrust is exacerbated by the rise of global conflicts fueling an informational warfare aimed at destabilizing democracy, and the emergence of generative AI, which amplifies their means of action. In this context, it was a priority for Make.org to invest heavily in building AI in service of democracy.”
The initiative is supported by "the Digital Commons" program of France 2030 and BPI France.