Progress Report: AI For Democracy

AI and Democracy

Progress Report: AI For Democracy - Democratic Commons

Share this article

We are honoured to publish here our first Progress report under our collaborative initiative AI For Democracy - Democratic Commons Global Research Programme, led by Make.org, SciencesPo Paris, Sorbonne University and CNRS.

You can find the report either below the text, or on the following link.

The Democratic Commons multidisciplinary project aims at leveraging generative AI to enhance democratic processes and citizen engagement. This two-year multidisciplinary initiative brings together over 50 experts in data science and social sciences to develop ethical AI applications for democracy. Democratic Commons “AI For Democracy” is one of seven winners of Bpifrance's 'Digital Commons for Generative AI' call for projects.

This Progress Report provides an overview of what was accomplished during the first six months of the project, between September 2024 and February 2025. The Democratic Commons has built a strong team, with the recruitment of 12 new members. Five new talents in the tech and coordination team, four PhD Students, and three junior researchers are now collaborating to develop virtuous applications of generative AI for democracy while simultaneously conducting in-depth studies on AI democratic biases that could potentially undermine its effectiveness.

Our team has laid the groundwork layout of the Programme, and launched key activities such as coordination, and communication. Highlights include:

A groundbreaking first draft to determine the democratic principles that generative AI must follow.
The release of an upgraded version of Make.org’s Panoramic platform. Panoramic is an AI-powered platform that simplifies the understanding of complex topics for the general public, encouraging informed opinions and engaged participation. Explore our Panoramic Platform on the 2025 Elections in Germany, on the EuropCom Conference, or on the nuclear energy debate in France.

‍

AI For Democracy - Democratic Commons Global Research Programme Team (December 2024)

‍

The Democratic Commons project has, by the time of writing, been already presented at over 10 events, including conferences, research seminars, workshops and expert roundtables across Europe and the US. The worldwide initiative was featured prominently at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025 as well. In case you missed it, we were at:

Compar:IA at BNF – Discussing how to fix democratic biases in LLMs. Watch again here (in French).
Participatory AI at SciencesPo Paris – A panel on enhancing citizen participation in AI governance. Watch again here (in English).
AI & Science at Polytechnique – Presenting our multidisciplinary groundbreaking approach with our SciencesPo social sciences and Sorbonne data science experts.
Top 100 Worldwide AI & Democracy Initiatives Mapping at Maison de la Chimie - Discover our mission and goals, alongside dozens of innovative initiatives here.