Overview
Today’s communication ecosystem enables citizen participation in public discourse at an unprecedented scale. Elected officials, their staff and civil servants spend significant time and resources navigating public feedback received through multiple channels, both directed surveys and on social media. While a lower threshold of entry has increased the volume of discourse, this has not led to a more effective understanding of public opinion and informed decision making for governance. Innovative representations of opinion landscapes using AI techniques can enable citizens, advocacy groups and government to understand crowd feedback more efficiently, filter through noise and bot automation, empower decision makers, and enhance democratic participation.