Citizens' Track on AI Update - May 8th 2026

Thank you to everyone who has been getting in touch to support the Citizens Track.

We were deeply disappointed not to be able to connect with many of you in person last week due to the troubling cancellation of RightsCon, but I am happy in this update to share news on how you can input to our Case Book to showcase existing public participation on AI, as well as an invite to an online update call next week (Tuesday 12th May, 1pm UTC) where we will be sharing more about plans for activities at the UN Global Dialogue / AI for Good in July.

Update Webinar: Tuesday 12th May - 1 UTC

Join us on Tuesday 12th May at 1pm UTC (9am Washington / 2pm London / 3pm Geneva / 6:30pm Delhi) for our next open call to discuss:

• The White Paper on a Citizens Track
• The Case Book of participatory AI
• Citizens Track presence alongside UN Global Dialogue

Register for the zoom call here.

Help us showcase existing public participation on AI

Have you been involved in commissioning, running or researching participatory processes on AI over the last few years? If so - please nominate or provide an entry for the Public AI Voices and Engagement (PAVE) Case Book.

This will form the heart of a showcase of existing public voices on AI, and a collection of inspiring and good practice examples of engagement methods, that we will be showcasing alongside the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance and AI for Good in July.

You can nominate a project to be included in the case book by answering five short questions, or, you can provide a full description of the What? Who? How? And What was said? from your project through this simple online form.

We’re looking for examples from around the globe of:

• Inclusive public attitudes research;
• Public dialogues on AI;
• Deliberative processes;
• Citizens assemblies;
• And other projects that have invited communities to shape AI development, policy or practice.

We recognise that participation takes many forms, and so the full case study form asks for the unique contribution each case makes to good practice for the particular context (geographic, sectoral, etc.) that it comes from.

We’ll be building the Case Book on a rolling basis, so early submissions are welcome, and only submissions received before 5th June can be considered for the July 2026 Showcase.

The Public AI Voices & Engagement (PAVE) Case Book project is funded and co-hosted with by the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Machine Intelligence, and co-hosted by Connected by Data in partnership with the Citizens Track on AI, the Participatory AI Research & Practice Symposium, the Ada Lovelace Institute, Geneva Graduate Institute, ISWE Foundation & partners.

Citizens Track at the AI Equality Festival of Ideas

We’re taking part in the AI Equality Network’s Festival of Ideas on 22nd May, 20:00 - 21:30 UTC with a session titled “Towards a Citizens’ Track on AI: Putting People in the Lead”.

This event, for a public audience taking part in the Festival of Ideas, will be an opportunity to hear about some of the ingredients that inform a Citizens Track - from grassroots engagement to global deliberation - and to explore the vision of embedding citizen voice in AI governance.

Register to take part here.

Our Global Dialogue consultation submission

We made a written submission to the Global Dialogue co-chairs last week. Thank you to everyone who contributed to discussions, or shared comments on the draft.

We were happy to also collaborate with a number of other organisations and networks submitting responses, and to see the Citizens Track recognised across a number of submissions.

The Ada Lovelace Institute have written about their consultation response, including a focus on “Public deliberation as essential infrastructure”, noting that:

“Public deliberations must feed directly into governance decisions. The Global Dialogue has a concrete opportunity to institutionalise public deliberation from the outset. It is easier to do this now than to fix later.”

Other updates from the Citizens Track

We’ve got a lot of activities underway over the coming weeks. Right now, our priorities include:

• Strengthening governance of the Citizens Track project, and drafting partnership agreements / structures. Look out for a request soon about how you want to formally affiliate to the project;

• Finalising and launching a project website;

• Planning for side-events and activities around the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva (6th - 10th July), including a presence in the AI for Good Expo;

• Fundraising/mobilising resources to be explore supporting distributed dialogues linked to the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance and 20267 Geneva AI Summit.