Building common ground for the common good.

Dear Subscriber First Name,

Over the past two months, we’ve been heads-down learning, testing, and documenting how new digital tools can strengthen civic dialogue and collective decision-making. In this issue, we share the results—two new publications, one interview, and one launch event—showing what works and how to make participation easier and more inclusive. Together, these efforts advance a simple idea with big consequences: if we equip communities with the right tools, we can move from louder arguments to better decisions.

We’re also excited to share a milestone: Common Good AI has obtained independent 501(c)(3) status. Our sincere thanks to Aspiration Tech for serving as our fiscal sponsor over the past year and helping us jumpstart this work.

As always, we are open to questions and ideas on how to apply digital technology to support community mobilization and deliberation. Write to us at info@commongoodai.org.

All the best,

Victoria Stanski, Managing Director

With Founders, John Seely Brown, John Clippinger, John Cordier, Tom Kehler, and Kim Polese

Policy Brief: Our Deliberation Tool Review Published by Toda Peace Institute

We’re thrilled to share a new publication. Common Good AI’s Senior Associate, Davis Smith, conceptualized and implemented a nine-week program with 25 college volunteers. We road-tested four deliberative tools–CrowdSmart, Pol.is, Talk to the City, Deliberation.io–to understand their functions and effectiveness, and to identify digital facilitation strategies. The brief ends with actionable steps to make these tools easier to use and better for collective decision-making.

New Publication: Mapping LLM Tools for Pluralistic Public Discourse

There is so much talk about negative impacts from technology, but imagine if we used digital tools to foster pluralism, dialogue, and social cohesion. These tools already exist!

The Plurality Institute, Council on Technology and Social Cohesion, and the Prosocial Design Network, convened experts to examine how tools using large language models (LLMs) intersect with civic dialogue and democratic engagement. A key outcome was a collaborative map of existing tools and research, designed to highlight emerging patterns and spark new initiatives for more constructive, inclusive public discourse.  Common Good AI’s Managing Director, Victoria Stanski, co-authored the report’s deliberative tech section.  

 Interview: How Inclusive AI Supercharges Collective Intelligence

​​"When every person's insights can be heard, evaluated fairly, and combined with others to create something greater than the sum of its parts, organizations don't just improve incrementally. They transform." Common Good AI’s Founder, Kim Polese, was interviewed by FreshWorks about the importance of new tools to facilitate inclusive decision-making. She highlights how human-first AI can enable collective intelligence. 

 Event: Ethical Tech, Human-Governed, AI-Powered Platform Launch

Common Good AI’s Founder, Tom Kehler, spoke at the San Francisco Tech Week on October 10 to launch ETHIS (Ethical Technologies for Humanity, Intelligence & Sustainability). As the world’s newest AI-powered and human-governed platform, ETHIS unites leaders from business, academia, government, and civil society to champion the ethical and responsible use of technology for the greater good.