Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders MIT Press (2025)
The tsunami of writing on artificial intelligence tends towards either bald hype or panicked dystopianism. Proponents say that AI will revolutionize health care, drive business growth and become our new best friend. But for its critics, AI could cause massive unemployment, perpetuate fake news and pose an extinction risk to humankind.
Why an overreliance on AI-driven modelling is bad for science
In Rewiring Democracy, cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier and data scientist Nathan Sanders offer a welcome middle path by focusing on practical politics. In a heartfelt, if workmanlike, way, they craft a framework for maximizing the democratic potential of AI. Yet, by shrinking and distorting the vexing political challenges that the world faces today to fit a single solution — AI — they short-change the frustrating glories of living together as human beings.
Structured clearly enough, even for readers who know little about AI, the book is rich with concrete examples and absorbing speculation. Schneier and Sanders propose that every aspect of democratic governance — such as negotiating procurement contracts, drafting legal briefs, producing local news or facilitating conversation across political divides — could be enhanced by the thoughtful application of AI developed under public control for public benefit.
“Entrenched elected officials, political movements with authoritarian tendencies, and the billionaire class all regard AI as a new tool to consolidate and centralize power,” they write. “But the rest of us, the public, can harness it as a tool to distribute power instead.”
For example, a personal “army of AI minions” could extend individual power by making it easier to speak out. AI agents could make political decisions on our behalf, guessing our preferences on the basis of past behaviour and communicating them swiftly to legislators.
AI for the people
AI, the authors write, could either enrich or undercut different modes of political participation: campaigns, legislation, public administration, courts, organizing and advocacy. AI as is, designed by corporate players and supercharging an already unequal political system, might exacerbate discrimination and harm, allow lobbyists to concentrate their power and leave the most vulnerable people with shoddy digital attorneys rather than pricier human ones. Public AI — designed to enrich democracy — could target government resources more effectively, lower the cost and expertise needed to generate legislation, and simplify the drafting of complaints.
AI can supercharge inequality — unless the public learns to control it
... continue reading