Post by Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute

Democratic engagement is considered a vital sign of thriving societies. Despite this, public consultation tools are costly, slow, and often reach only an active segment of the population. Decisions worth millions are based on narrow slices of public opinion — all because listening at scale has never been possible. Gabrielle Hurtubise-Radet studied public affairs and technology at Sciences Po Paris and later served as a Fellow at UC Berkeley. She worked at Mila and Microsoft before co-founding her venture, Polaire. Her journey through policy, AI, and academia has fuelled her desire to put innovation at the service of the democratic process. Polaire helps decision-makers gather citizen input by voice or text and turn thousands of individual comments into actionable insights within minutes, rather than weeks. The platform distills large volumes of qualitative feedback into clear, quantitative signals that give the pulse of public opinion in real time. Responses are anonymized and processed in accordance with the Montreal Declaration on Responsible AI. Polaire's ambition is to make civic engagement as easy as a conversation with a friend, and as insightful as a comprehensive study for decision-makers. AI is largely seen as a technology that eliminates the frictions of human society. Polaire is countering this one-dimensional understanding: if a technological solution is built on a foundation of accountability and inclusion, it can expand citizen self-expression. Mila Ventures supports companies that explore AI’s potential to challenge the default configuration of systems we inhabit. We look for founders who understand the problem space through prior experience, and devote themselves to finding promising solutions.

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