Connected by data

The thick and thin of public involvement

Jeni Tennison ▪ Nov 18, 2025

“I want to offer another vision of human compatibility in AI: one that embraces a thick and demanding world of human capacity, social complexity, and local politics in place of the thin, pliable, universalizing world of individual preferences.”

Jacob G. Foster; From Thin to Thick: Toward a Politics of Human-Compatible AI. Public Culture 1 September 2023; 35 (3 (101)): 417–430. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-10742593

The distinction between “thick” and “thin” modes of involving communities around (data and) AI is useful. “Thin” involvement skims off surface-level instincts and data from frictionless transactions, while “thick” involvement demands thoughtful, complex, nuanced and stretching engagement. In reality we need both.

Bit and pieces: assembling a workshop in a box on generative AI in education

Tim Davies ▪ Oct 31, 2025

We’ve been creating a small toolkit to help schools, colleges and informal education settings to discuss Generative AI in Education. This blog post reflects on elements of the development process.

Procurement Remix: Methods for Public Participation in AI

Tim Davies ▪ Oct 9, 2025

As part of the launch for the Principles on Public Participation in the Procurement of AI this week we ran a play test of an adapted version of the Good Governance Game.

Public Participation in Open Digital Government

Tim Davies ▪ Oct 5, 2025

As the the Open Government Community, Connected by Data amongst them, meet in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain this week, they will reaffirm a commitment to the Open Government Declaration, with it’s central focus on supporting civic participation. In the new Vitoria-Gasteiz Declaration they will also highlight the need to link open government with broader global agendas, including the governance of “artificial intelligence, data, and emerging technologies”, providing renewed backing for the idea that “public participation in civic life” must extend to the public decisions about data and digital.

Response to Open Letter on Prioritising AI Literacy for All Citizens

Tim Davies ▪ Sep 18, 2025

In July we coordinated an open letter to Keir Starmer PM, Peter Kyle MP (the then Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology) and Bridget Phillipson MP (then Secretary of State for Education) calling for investment in AI Literacy for All.

We received a brief e-mail reply from the Department for Education and, on August 28th, a reply from Feryal Clark MP, the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology which is quoted below:

Making the case for public participation in AI procurement

Tim Davies ▪ Sep 17, 2025

The principles for Public Participation in AI Procurement we will be co-launching alongside the Open Government Partnership Summit in a few weeks time focus on the what and the how of involving affected communities in decisions at all stages of buying and managing AI systems in the public sector. But ahead of that, we need to answer the question why? Why is is particularly important to involve publics in AI procurement, when, to date, procurement has often not been a space where public engagement is widespread.

Preparing for our workshop at the Open Gov Hub today, I’ve jotted down the following reasons.

Open Letter to the UK Government - Prioritising AI Literacy for All Citizens

Tim Davies ▪ Jul 8, 2025

On 9th June the Prime Minister announced a skills drive on AI focussed technical/functional skills for students and workers, with the announcement centred on industry collaborations, and economic impacts of AI.

Drawing on inputs from a meeting of the Charity AI Taskforce, and from the Data & AI Civil Society Network, and with feedback from contributors listed below, we drafted an open letter to call for a greater focus of investment and action on scaling and sustaining comprehensive critical AI literacy programmes for all citizens.

The letter was open for signature over June, and has been sent to the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Science, and Secretary of State for Education.

A full copy of the letter can be found here and if you would like to receive updates on any government response or be invited to a follow-up online conversation, please complete the form here.

Beyond Tech Experts: Public Voices Must Shape AI's Future

Guest ▪ Jun 5, 2025

An op-ed written by the PVAI People’s Advisory Panel

The upcoming government spending review is likely to place a big emphasis on the potential of AI to update public services, and yet less than 25% of the population feel their views and values are represented in current decisions being made about AI. As a group of citizens from all walks of life, engaged over the last year in exploring how the public could, and should, have a voice shaping a responsible AI future, we believe that needs to change. And it can.

Weeknotes are a combination of updates and personal reflection written on a routine basis