Innovating Democracy - Los Angeles
Language: English・By Invitation Only
Info
Democracy thrives on argument. Yet we have forgotten how to argue well. Algorithms reward outrage, debates split into camps, and common ground disappears in the noise.
What if the same technology that divides us could help us listen to one another again?
In 1938, Thomas Mann toured the United States, speaking of the coming victory of democracy. He knew that this victory is never guaranteed. Every generation must win it anew. At the Thomas Mann House, his home in Californian exile, we take up that idea. With the tools of our time.
We bring citizens, technologists, scholars, and activists to one table. Together we debate contested propositions. How much regulation does artificial intelligence need? Who protects us from digital disinformation? And who decides what counts as disinformation?
An AI platform is part of the experiment. It moderates, transcribes, and analyzes the conversation. It searches for bridging statements that people can share across political divides, and it reveals what different versions of a consensus might look like. The decisions stay with the people at the table.
A laboratory for tomorrow’s democracy. Join the conversation.
Participants
Miriam Meckel is a full professor at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, specializing in communication management and technologies and co-founder of ada Learning GmbH. She has extensive experience in science, journalism, and politics, including as Harvard Fellow, editor-in-chief of WirtschaftsWoche, and State Secretary for Media and International Affairs in North Rhine-Westphalia. Her research focuses on technological transformation and innovation. She publishes widely both academically and journalistically.