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

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 sector designs, delivers, and manages services. While AI is giving us ways to accelerate change, the prescribed cure may be premature: most of what’s broken in government requires organizational reform, not automation.

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 now falls on us. Like shoppers at the fish counter, we need to learn to read the labels—to know what’s safe, what’s risky, and how to choose well.

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 artificial superintelligence, long embraced by Big Tech, diverts attention from the real and immediate challenges of AI and how our democratic institutions can address them.

Hamburg uses AI to turn citizen feedback into urban policy, Boston showcases tools that improve public trust, and tribal nations are piloting AI for governance while protecting sovereignty. New York b

AI’s biggest breakthroughs were built on public datasets; the next wave should be, too. If governments make data AI-ready and keep access open, we can power tools that explain laws, improve services, and widen participation. In return, companies that train on taxpayer data should give back, through open licenses, benchmarks, and capacity that strengthen public institutions.

Explore, participate and contribute to the first collaborative public design map in the region.

Boston became a living laboratory for democratic innovation last week, as two major convenings—the Civic AI Summit at Northeastern and Harvard’s Digital Democracy showcase—brought together leaders reshaping how technology serves the public good. From new tools that open up lawmaking and procurement to partnerships that align city and state AI strategies, Boston’s approach offers a model nationally for how AI can strengthen democracy through human-centered design, transparency, and collaboration.