What is the best framework for the global governance of AI? How do we respond to tech companies who argue against regulation? Is our current pace of technological change ultimately greater than our ability to manage it?

These are some of the pressing questions my team and I grapple with at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. 

In my recent paper, Can Democracy Survive AI, published on the heels of the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, I explain the fundamental challenges that AI poses to democracies.

In some ways, AI can be seen as inherently anti-democratic. As it exists now, AI innovation is accelerating centralisation and control, fuelling ideologies of trade-offs between regulation and economic growth, prioritising efficiency over accountability, and enabling absolute control coupled with unaccountable power. The story about AI that people are currently telling is one about economic growth and how technology will work for us. However, there are many other possible futures that help us frame these potentially transformative technologies, for example as supporting artists and creators, rather than threatening their livelihoods. 

Societies can  design and implement frameworks that mitigate these risks and use AI technologies to empower citizens, enhance transparency, and protect democratic values. It is possible for novel technologies and AI systems to strengthen our elections, provide opportunities for creative industries, and empower frontline workers who deliver public services.

By shoring up responsible uses of AI, we can build tech-enabled workplaces that are safe, social media platforms that foster connection rather than sow division, and sustainable infrastructure that does not deplete our planet’s resources. 

This reworking of AI for democracy calls for a collective reimagining of how AI is developed, deployed and governed. 

Big Tech’s visions cannot be the only ones that count towards the kind of future we build. We have to refocus on the hope and innovative ideas in other places, that show how everyday people can use and benefit from AI.

Civil society, for example, is where ideas of agency and the digital good are being explored and more playful ways of talking about AI’s future are emerging. Robust cross-disciplinary academic research, at places like ai@cam and the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, and community dialogues on tech policy are helping restore our trust in each other and in our institutions. 

Most crucially, everyday people are adopting, resisting and modifying AI tools across sectors, and there is hope to be found in their imaginaries. People are using AI-powered tools to exercise agency over their health and well-being and pursue new educational avenues.

At the same time, many are pushing back against unchecked AI, with campaigns opposing facial recognition in public and demands for more transparency around biases in hiring algorithms. Others still are modifying AI tools to improve how they serve their communities and better allocate council resources to underserved groups. 

Moving fast and breaking things is not the way to a digital future where everyone benefits from AI. Instead, it’s imperative we refocus on how AI innovation can support local communities, work with social movement ecosystems, and pursue new pathways for AI governance beyond the ‘growth’ narrative.

Democracy can survive AI if we reimagine technology for public not private interest – it is on us to ensure these systems are designed and deployed fairly, responsibly, ethically and inclusively.

Professor Gina Neff is Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH).

Published: 14 April 2025

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