Post by Francesca Bosco

Delighted to reflect on an excellent exchange earlier this week at Global Governance Centre | Geneva Graduate Institute for a session on : “Towards a Citizens’ Track on AI Governance” The discussion brought together a remarkable community working at the frontier of participatory AI governance—focused on a shared challenge that is becoming increasingly central: how to ensure that the voices of those affected by AI systems are not only heard, but structurally embedded in how governance frameworks are designed and evolve. What stood out most was the collective shift in emphasis—from ad hoc consultation toward institutionalising citizen participation as a governance capability, particularly in transnational AI architectures. Key strands of the exchange included: 👉 The emerging Citizens’ Track model, building on lessons from the first global citizens’ track on climate governance launched at COP30 👉 The value of combining deliberative processes with scalable, structured instruments to capture broader public signal without losing depth 👉 Concrete pathways to connect grassroots, national, and multilateral engagement into the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance 👉 The importance of designing mechanisms that allow citizen input to travel—meaningfully—into policy and institutional decision-making loops The convening, hosted by Global Governance Centre | Geneva Graduate Institute Iswe Foundation and Connected by Data, with contributions from Ada Lovelace Institute and many experts across the field, reflected a maturing ecosystem of practice that is increasingly moving from experimentation to system design. I also want to warmly acknowledge Emrys Schoemaker and Tim Davies for their vision and sustained leadership in bringing coherence and direction to this emerging agenda, and to Octavia Field Reid and Johnny Stormonth-Darling for sharing their direct experience. I’m equally grateful for the ongoing exchanges with participants on how different methodological approaches—deliberative, qualitative, and large-scale quantitative instruments—can be combined to strengthen the evidentiary basis of citizen engagement in AI governance. The conversations are continuing beyond the room, and I am looking forward to contributing further to the design work ahead—particularly around the ongoing United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance led by UNESCO International Telecommunication Union United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies and the upcoming relevant meeting in #Geneva in July alongside the AI for Good summit. There is still significant work to do, but the direction of travel is becoming clearer: toward governance systems where citizen intelligence is not peripheral, but foundational. #AIGovernance #AIPolicy #ResponsibleAI #TechGovernance #DigitalGovernance #PublicParticipation #CitizenEngagement #ParticipatoryGovernance #InclusiveAI #GlobalGovernance #UNDialogue #Multilateralism #DigitalSovereignty #HumanCentredAI #AIForGood