Abstract: The roll-out of data analytics, algorithmic decision-making and AI has severe implications for democratic participation and state-citizen relations. While data systems deployed in public services and for state interventions can have severe implications for people’s lives, those who are affected have little knowledge or understanding, nor avenues to meaningfully engage, intervene, or resist. How, then, do citizens affect the management and use of the data systems and AI applications that increasingly organize society? How do we participate in decision-making about the deployment of data and AI? How do we develop democratic practices to ensure participation and accountability in the age of AI? Drawing on findings from research by the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University, this presentation explores emerging opportunities for participatory and deliberative forms of governing AI.

Bio: Arne Hintz is a Reader at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), Director of Postgraduate Research, and Co-Director of the Data Justice Lab. His research focuses on the practices and conditions of digital citizenship, combining work on media activism, communications policy, and datafication. His most current research explores avenues for enhanced citizen participation in the governance of data and AI. He has led several collaborative and multi-year research projects, including Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society: UK State-Media-Citizen Relations After the Snowden Leaks" (2014-16), Towards Democratic Auditing: Civic Participation in the Scoring Society (2018-20), and Democratising the Datafied Society (2021-23). He is Co-Chair of the Global Media Policy Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and he has worked as expert and advisor with advocacy initiatives such as the Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) and the Open Rights Group (ORG), and UN processes such as the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).