How the use of Artificial Intelligence can boost Democracy and Representation through Social Participation?

1. Machine Learning
and Social
Participation

2. Hello!
Yasodara Córdova
@yaso
Fellow researcher at the Digital Kennedy School
Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard
Former W3C Specialist
Former UN Tech Consultant for Innovation in Democracy
Researcher | Product Manager | Industrial Designer
Innovation and Democracy
Internet-based collaborative Decision making

3. PARTICIPATION
Ideally.
Democracy depends on participation.
Direct democracy relies on massive participation.

4. Modules
Platforms
algorithms

5. 1. 2009
Public
consultations
Sharing the development of our
guidelines: bills go to public scrutiny.
Open participation.
Open collaboration.

6. Text: same structure, easier collaboration
■ Bills are text
■ Texts that share structure
○ Sections
○ Titles
○ Chapters etc
Output can be changed with the
collaboration of many hands. Even when
they don't write text. Even when they just
like it.

7. Marco Civil
Principles and rights for
Internet use. More than 2500
comments and suggestions.
(more details at
http://bit.ly/29MbOiv)
Ministry of Justice platform:
http://bit.ly/2h0l36q
Data Privacy Bill
More than 1200 comments +
articles in .pdf format -59
different countries
(more details at
http://bit.ly/2fLALCl)
Data from where?

8. participacao.mj.gov.br/dadospessoais

9. 1. 2015
Machine
Learning
Boost the contributions;
Human in the loop processes;
Law making process can be faster and
more efficient

10. Actors involved
People
collaborating
Everyone can contribute, using e-mail
as identification. Tools have to
prevent abuse.
Institutions
Big articles, academic papers,
uploading excerpts in pdf. All these
scenarios need to be possible and
foreseen in the collaboration
processes.
Reorganizer
Responsible for reorganize, arrange,
put new text into the older text - is the
maintainer. Her job is to keep the bill
coherent and accommodate
suggestions and comments of the
collaborators.
New text
The new text can be submitted.
Everyone hopes that it's going to be a
plausible text, embracing and
cohesive.
Interactive
Interface
A "Dashboard", Interactive in a way
that results can be edited. Here, one
can see and simulate different
situations.
Algorithms
Platform to support the
reorganization. It has to be
transparent, open. The datasets have
to present provenance information.

11. ~$ sudo apt-get
install
reorganizer
Reorganizer would
break down
contributions sent
through PDF into .txt
++
Elaborate a data
dictionary with key
units of analysis per
axes
~$ sudo apt-get
purge reorganizer
The data gathered
on the platform, plus
the data generated
by the reorganizer
formed the input of
analysis for the web
expert team
Intimacy
Private life
Image
Dignity
Secrecy
Breach

12. A series of
algorithms to
work with text
An open platform with
processes of ML to give
insights about data.
Questions as: "how
many times the
answers was negative"
- we tried to answer
with sentiment
analysis, as an
example.
Transparency
An interface so that
people could analyse
the output of the
reorganizer and
suggest new
modifications based in
data visualization.
Output
New rules to write
laws: simpler, open
and collaborative.
Simplified language
appears as key.
Three products - with Virgilio Almeida, UFMG

13. TransparentOpen Source Reliable
Human in the Loop - - > Society in the Loop

14. Dashboard
Graphics and datavis shows relationships that aren't
noticeable if data isn't visually explained
Place your screenshot here

15. Opinion-forming and Influence
The “louder voices” and stakeholder engagement

16. Sentiment Analysis
Overall negative opinion about the items in consultation

17. Hope

18. What we needed
BigData
Massive participation
Institutionalization
Instruments that use digital technology to improve
participation need Laws and regulations
Open Source Software
Massive participation, massive hacking

19. 1. 2016
Machine
Learning -
accountability
ML to follow democratic processes?
Where the money goes
Why isn’t that applied to the right issues

20. An Artificial Intelligence Platform to track expenses?
BRAZIL: A COUNTRY THE SIZE
OF A CONTINENT
79th on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index

21. An Artificial Intelligence Platform to track expenses?

22. An Artificial Intelligence Platform to track expenses?
8th on the global open data index by the OKF
https://index.okfn.org/place/

23. An Artificial Intelligence Platform to track expenses?
OPENNESS CORRUPTION

24. Humans in the loop

25. Humans in the loop -- Society in the loop

26. Humans in the loop -- Society in the loop

27. Humans in the loop -- Society in the loop

28. What we need
BigData → MORE DATA!
Massive participation
Institutionalization
Instruments that use digital technology to improve
participation need laws and regulations
Open Source Software
Massive participation, massive hacking

29. What we need

30. What we need
Capacity building
Knowledge!
Better institutions
Who doesn’t?
Open Source Software
Massive participation, massive hacking

31. What we need
DESCENTRALIZATION

32. Complexity frameworks
Context and Implementation of Complex Interventions
Making sense of complexity in context and implementation: the Context and Implementation of Complex Interventions (CICI) framework

33. What we need
COLABORATION

34. Thanks!
Any questions?