It’s easy to get disillusioned about our prospects for democratizing AI when it seems like tech broligarchs are rapidly reshaping our world— much faster than democratic constituencies can. But democratic pessimism might be the biggest danger in this context: when we think AI innovation will inevitably be shaped by others, we might opt out of even trying to take charge. At the same time, many forward-thinking initiatives are emerging, which utilize the power of civil society, the research community and the public sector to create democratically legitimate tools and to establish better oversight and participation mechanisms.

There is a translation gap between the complex, scattered, quickly evolving landscape of innovative AI democratization efforts, and those who are currently leaning towards democratic pessimism. Even if one agrees that democratic control over AI would be a good idea in principle, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start and what individual people or groups can do in concrete terms. We want to be a catalyst in this context, so that different pro-democratic actors can see what kinds of initiatives have worked elsewhere, which democratic values they realize in practice, and what kind of real-world change they have created so far.