Designing tech with friction

This recipe is about designing an entire democratic process—not just the AI tool within it. When AI is introduced into a deliberative setting, the surrounding process needs to change too: not just to make the AI work, but to make sure the democracy works.

This policy brief focuses on short-term action (2026-2028) around AI governance and provides practical guidelines for experts and policymakers. It introduces a framework that embeds democratic pillars — participation, freedom, equality, transparency, knowledge, and the rule of law — directly into the entire AI lifecycle.

This section analyses how different knowledge technologies impact people’s attention and, consequently, their decisions regarding which information is worth storing and remembering, and which is instead forgotten or not even registered in the first place.

This section examines how people develop trust – or distrust – in knowledge technologies. This section considers three main aspects.

The policy brief published by KT4D suggests that examining culture allows for a deeper understanding of societal responses to AI development.

The Recommendation Algorithms explainer aims to demonstrate how algorithms work on social media platforms. It allows the users to simulate their experience on a social media platform, where their choices shape a personalised feed.

2.1    Equality

Equality is by-and-large considered both a positive aspect of democracy, and a necessary feature for democracy.