Civic AI Working Group
Civic Agency, Democratic Innovation & Critical Scrutiny
The Civic AI Working Group is an interdisciplinary research hub dedicated to examining how artificial intelligence is restructuring social, economic, and political institutions. We operate at the vital intersection of constructive civic innovation and critical inquiry. On one hand, our research investigates how agentic AI and computational tools can be harnessed to promote the common good—empowering undergraduates and community partners to build living civic infrastructure, advance participatory governance, and deepen public policy deliberation. On the other hand, we actively develop critical frameworks addressing the systemic costs of generative AI: from the unsustainable water and energy consumption of planetary-scale data centers, to extractive data colonialism, algorithmic surveillance, and the erosion of democratic agency.
In the working group, fellows learn to use coding agents to complete rigorous, participation-based research: building automated pipelines for legislative analysis, creating simulations to train policy entrepreneurs, and conducting empirical audits of algorithmic systems. Crucially, our goal is to actively connect people and complicate—rather than simply optimize—our understanding of civic life.
The Civic AI Working Group is convened by Dr. Jose Marichal. Students and collaborators interested in joining can contact him at marichal@callutheran.edu.
Analog Politics
Can going analog become a social movement?
Unaccountable AI
Should we let AI go rogue?
Techno-Pessimism
Are we better off not expecting too much from AI?
Pluralist AI
Can AI make democracy more, not less expansive