Where and when AI and CI meet: exploring the intersection of artificial and collective intelligence towards the goal of innovating how we govern

This paper seeks to explore the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Collective Intelligence (CI), within the context of innovating how we govern. It starts from the premise that advances in technology provide policy makers with two important new assets: data and connected people. The application of AI and CI allows them to leverage these assets toward solving public problems. Yet both AI and CI have serious challenges that may limit their value within a governance context, including biases embedded in datasets and algorithms, undermining trust in AI; and high transaction costs to manage people’s engagement limiting CI to scale. The main argument of this paper is that some of the challenges of AI and CI can in fact be addressed through greater interaction of CI and AI. In particular, the paper argues for: