We are building a citizen participation platform using AI to restore and innovate South Korean democracy. Like France's Democratic Commons, our goal is to "utilize the potential of generative AI to strengthen democracy" and to join global efforts to innovate citizen participation and collaborative governance.
Through AI technology, we aim to complement the limitations of representative democracy and effectively gather citizens' voices, thereby resolving political distrust and apathy and realizing inclusive and transparent democracy. This platform is a collaborative community of researchers, developers, and citizens, with a vision to protect democratic values and create a new culture of participation through the ethical use of AI.
An online space where anyone can propose policy ideas and participate in discussions. Users can propose, vote, and discuss on topics ranging from local issues to national concerns. For example, like the "Gwanghwamun 1st Street" initiative started in 2017, we provide a channel to directly connect the government and citizens for opinion sharing. Our platform adds generative AI-based summarization, quickly categorizing and summarizing thousands of opinions and showing the flow of public discourse. This efficiently implements large-scale deliberative democracy.
We build a diverse public data hub for reference in policy decisions. We transparently collect and open citizen proposal data, discussion results, and related public data in one place, encouraging researchers and civic hackers to gain insights. This data sharing enables evidence-based policy discussions, and AI learns from accumulated data to provide more sophisticated analysis.
AI automatically categorizes policies proposed by citizens and groups similar proposals. It also helps find supporting evidence for proposals or summarizes pros and cons from various perspectives to facilitate constructive discussions. The best ideas are developed into concrete policies through collective intelligence and AI analysis, then delivered to relevant departments or local governments.
An AI assistant within the platform explains policy procedures and legal basics in an easy and neutral way. For example, through chatbots, it answers questions like "How does the budget process work?" and verifies statistics or facts that emerge during discussions in real-time. This enables citizens to participate based on better information and reduces misinformation and bias.
We create online public forums for local conflicts (e.g., urban development, environmental issues). Stakeholders and residents gather to dialogue, and AI helps organize key issues or derive possible compromises. In Korea, there have been cases where randomly selected citizens reached social consensus through discussion and deliberation on policies like nuclear energy. Similarly, we support democratic consensus building at the local level through our AI platform.
South Korean democracy currently faces several challenges. Political distrust is severe, with 63% of citizens reporting that they do not trust the government as of 2023. In fact, disillusionment with corruption and inefficiency has led to extreme concepts like "algocracy" (replacing human politicians with AI), showing significant skepticism about democracy.
Simultaneously, political polarization has intensified. The 2022 presidential election saw increased voter fatigue and disappointment due to negative campaigning and divisive issues between rival candidates. This division hinders social integration and makes constructive discussion difficult. Additionally, there is a lack of citizen participation. Beyond elections, channels for reflecting public opinion in policy are limited, and younger generations tend to be more cynical about politics.
Paradoxically, South Korean citizens have high educational levels and excellent digital literacy, with abundant potential for participation. They have demonstrated large-scale participation at critical moments, such as in impeachment candlelight protests and online petitions. Therefore, the problem is not willingness to participate but the absence of a sustainable, systematic platform and trustworthy processes for participation. Our platform aims to address these issues through technology and innovation.
This platform functions beyond a simple website as a collaborative community of citizens and experts.
Social scientists, data scientists, and civic activists gather to analyze Korean democratic issues with data and research AI applications. For example, they use discussion data accumulated on the platform to study AI bias evaluation, forming a feedback loop by applying results to improve the platform.
Members engage in in-depth discussions on key issues through online forums and regularly hold video conferences or offline workshops to build trust and networking. AI assists in managing discussions (e.g., managing speaking time, suggesting agendas) to help more people efficiently express their opinions.
Within the community, policy proposal experiments, civic hackathons, and local problem-solving campaigns take place, with outstanding ideas potentially implemented through crowdfunding or government collaboration. Through these activities, the platform continuously evolves, and participants gain a sense of achievement by actively improving democracy.
Co-Director / Professor of Political Science
Co-Director / AI Researcher
Operations Director / Civil Society Activist
Planning Director / Social Innovation Consultant
This platform is based on a collaborative structure between social science and data science. The diagram below shows the AI democracy structure designed based on South Korean political issues.
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The diagram below represents a structure where practice and research continuously communicate, allowing the platform to evolve progressively. It's a virtuous cycle where citizen participation doesn't just end as data but returns to citizens through AI and academic verification.
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This platform, starting in South Korea, can expand through cooperation with other Asian democracies, including Japan. Today, strengthening democracy and establishing ethical technology standards is not just one country's issue but a pan-Asian joint task. Japan also shows high interest in AI governance and democracy, leading the G7 Hiroshima AI Process and launching an AI strategy council to seek international cooperation.
This suggests significant potential for Korea and Japan to build an Asian version of the Democratic Commons network. For example, we can imagine citizens of both countries exchanging opinions by participating in each other's platforms through translation AI or conducting joint policy experiments. Further, we can develop into an East Asian democratic cooperation body by connecting with other countries in the region with diverse political and social contexts, such as Taiwan and Singapore.
This expansion from an Asian perspective will be an opportunity to develop common democratic values while respecting cultural diversity. Starting from the Korean case, we will maintain an open attitude to broaden the horizons of cooperation so that the AI democracy platform can lead to citizen participation innovation across Asia. Each section has been designed to reflect a deep understanding of Korean society and an Asian perspective.
Under the core values of transparency, inclusivity, and cooperation, this platform will open a new arena for democracy suitable for the AI era. Beyond political distrust and polarization, we will realize a sustainable democratic innovation platform created together by citizens, government, and experts. We welcome the participation of all Korean and Asian citizens in this journey for the future of democracy.