Where does AI belong in society?
This is the question the AI, Democracy & Common Futures Living Lab asks, starting from people rather than from technology. Public debate on AI is often framed as a matter of regulation and risk management: deciding which uses are acceptable and where the red lines lie. We ask an earlier and broader question. Which futures do we want to build together, for ourselves and for generations to come, and does AI have a place in them? Sometimes the answer will be that it does not.
The Common Futures Lab explores and maps out the intersections between democratic practices and AI. It starts from an understanding of democracy as resting on and enabling human agency. This agency is exercised through participation, by which citizens shape their collective futures. Challenging common narratives of technological inevitability, the Common Futures Lab seeks to expand citizens’ agency in deciding what role technologies should play in their lives, both individually and as a society. It also aims to strengthen futures literacy and AI literacy among different populations in Switzerland and beyond, in particular among young people and populations in the Global South.
Anchored in the Geneva Graduate Institute’s commitment to a peaceful, equitable and sustainable world, the Common Futures Lab holds that AI should not escape democratic oversight or contribute to democratic backsliding, the erosion of trust and social isolation. AI should instead become a matter for democratic engagement in order to contribute to the well-being of all.
What we do
Bringing together researchers, civil-society organisations, tech experts, decision-makers and the public, the Common Futures Lab aims to help citizens regain agency over the present and future use, adoption and governance of AI in society. It co-designs spaces for information sharing and participation that help individuals and policymakers better grasp the societal implications of AI, deliberate across differences and propose common futures in which AI serves humans and the planet.
Through iterative cycles of experimentation and reflection, it examines what makes innovations meaningful, inclusive and accountable, particularly for groups often underrepresented in decision-making such as young people. In the run-up to the Geneva AI Summit, the Common Futures Lab organises participatory workshops that build AI and futures literacy while gathering the views of diverse groups across the population, in Switzerland and beyond. It will then share these views with political leaders at the Summit and in other policy settings.
The Common Futures Lab bridges research and practice: its findings feed into academic debates on democratic innovation and the governance of AI, while offering concrete tools and lessons for institutions seeking to open up their decision-making.
