The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a global wave of deliberative experimentation that reignited interest in the long-standing promise of digital democracy. Encompassing both consultative interactions—aimed at improving communication between citizens and policymakers—and more ambitious deliberative processes focused on horizontal, citizen-to-citizen dialogue, digital democracy initiatives have flourished across a wide range of political and geographic contexts. Yet despite substantial investment, many of these initiatives have fallen short of expectations. Persistent obstacles—including low participation rates, uneven deliberation quality, and limited political impact—have led to growing skepticism. The rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) represents a possible inflection point. GenAI offers significant opportunities to overcome long-standing barriers to digital democracy: it can dramatically scale up participation through automated moderation, improve deliberation quality via sophisticated language tools, and support more inclusive and meaningful civic engagement. At the same time, GenAI poses profound risks: from amplifying social and cultural biases, to spreading disinformation, to enabling targeted manipulation of public opinion. These developments pose urgent challenges for the integrity and legitimacy of democratic deliberation.

This project will investigate the transformative potential and democratic perils of GenAI. Through interdisciplinary research, it will develop and test AI-based tools designed to enhance the quality, inclusiveness, and scalability of online deliberation—drawing on the latest advances in Natural Language Processing and machine learning. Alongside technological innovation, the project will produce a robust set of evidence-based policy and regulatory recommendations to help democratic societies responsibly govern the deployment of GenAI in public discourse.

While globally relevant, the project will devote special attention to the Israeli context, where digital platforms have become crucial tools in the struggle to protect democracy amid attempts to erode judicial independence and alter the constitutional order. In this setting, the project will explore the double-edged role of GenAI—both as a catalyst for democratic resilience and as a mechanism for intensifying polarization and fragmenting the public sphere.