Act On Democracy: Essentials in the Age of ai

This deeper dive into 'Essentials in the Age of Ai' looks at Attention, Engagement, and the Democratic Mind.

We look at the five core human capacities underpinning our democracies (comprehend, connect, create, communicate, and cope) and explor how Ai-driven technologies are reshaping each one. We then take a deeper dive, examining the specific design features behind that reshaping, what they mean for our democratic citizenship, and how we might build something better.

This workshop focuses on how platforms are built to capture and hold our attention, and what this does to our capacity to comprehend complexity, think independently, and express ourselves authentically. From infinite scroll to Ai-generated summaries, we examine how engagement-optimised design erodes the epistemic foundations democracy depends on: curiosity, critical thinking, and the ability to imagine alternatives. We then ask what attention and engagement design would look like if it served human flourishing rather than commercial extraction, and what tools Europe has to get us there.

Organised and led by: tech & democracy analyst Maria Koomen, neuroscientists and policy analysts Nicoleta Prutean & Virginia Mahieu


*Act On sessions offer action-oriented get-togethers on a specific issue, between experts and an audience willing to do something about it.* Open to all.

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ABOUT The Hosts
maria Koomen is a Democracy, governance & tech analyst and advocacy specialist. She is the former governance director at the Centre for Future Generations, working on the challenges at the intersection of emerging technologies, democracy, and governance. Her work focused on ensuring that governance systems evolve to keep pace with technological and societal change. Maria led the Open Governance Network for Europe, a joint initiative of Open Government Partnership and Democratic Society to drive connection, dialogue, and learning around public participation, transparency, and accountability with an eye to improving democracy and governance in and across the European Union. Prior to that Maria was senior programme manager on the Democracy Conflict & Governance program at the Carnegie Europe.

Nicoleta Prutean is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, currently leading research on tech & the brain at the Centre for Future Generations. Drawing on her expertise in brain science, her mission is to ensure that evidence on how emerging technologies affect mental health translates into policies that both protect and empower future generations.

Virginia Mahieu is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, neurotechnology Director at the Centre for Future Generations. She explores how neurotechnologies impact society, combining neuroscience and foresight to ensure that governance frameworks are up to scratch so these emerging technologies contribute to a brain-healthy future. She previously worked at the Policy Foresight Unit and the Scientific Foresight Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service, where she specialised in futures literacy, behavioural insights, and scenario planning at the science-policy interface.