Conversations between governments and citizens in a digital society
This project seeks to understand how citizens listen and speak to public institutions, and how alternative AI-based models and framing might encourage democratic communication.
The Internet has transformed political behaviour, from voting and campaigning for policy change, to protest and even revolution. This poses a challenge to states, as political movements become more turbulent, unpredictable, and societies harder to govern.
To understand this radically transformed political world, we are re-examining the models and conceptual frameworks of political science and theory, and developing social data science methodologies to understand political behaviour.
This project seeks to understand how citizens listen and speak to public institutions, and how alternative AI-based models and framing might encourage democratic communication.
This project examines the fragmented legislations and legal landscape that governs the development, sale, and deployment of AI technologies used for government surveillance.
Based on a case-study analysis of bias in the Chicago Crime Prediction Algorithm, this project explores the extent to which evidence of algorithmic bias can be used to guide policy responses to the societal disparities replicated in these tools.
31 October 2024
On November 5, around 240 million eligible US American voters across 50 states will elect the next president. In this piece, OII researchers consider the role of digital technologies in this election.
22 October 2024
A new comment piece by Professor Mariarosaria Taddeo, published in leading journal Nature, proposes six principles for responsible design and development of quantum technologies for defence.
22 August 2024
New analysis from political science experts at OII and LSE highlights the rise in digital government technologies and opportunities for the new UK government to deliver AI fuelled changes in public services.
Fortune, 06 November 2024
Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president will have massive repercussions for the technology sector.
The Quantum Insider, 23 October 2024
Quantum technologies are emerging rapidly. However, a team of scientists writing in Nature warns of the absence of robust ethical frameworks for these new capabilities in health, communications, transportation and finance, to name a few.
Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2024
AI is fragile and can be attacked, say critics, who fear system ‘could be adopted without any critical thinking’.
Professor of Society and the Internet
Helen Margetts is Professor of Society and the Internet, a political scientist specialising in digital government and politics. She was Director of the OII from 2011-18. She is a Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College.
The OII is home to some of the top academics studying digital politics and government, including Professor Helen Margetts. She is a political scientist specialising in the relationship between digital technology and government, politics and public policy. She is an advocate for the potential of multi-disciplinarity and computational social science for our understanding of political behaviour and development of public policy in a digital world.
She has published over a hundred books, articles and policy reports in this area, including Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action (with Peter John, Scott Hale and Taha Yasseri, 2015); Paradoxes of Modernization (with Perri 6 and Christopher Hood, 2010); Digital Era Governance (with Patrick Dunleavy, 2006, 2008); and The Tools of Government in the Digital Age (with Christopher Hood, 2007).
Professor Margetts joined the OII in 2004 from University College London where she was a Professor in Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy. She began her career as a computer programmer and systems analyst with Rank Xerox after receiving her BSc in mathematics from the University of Bristol. She returned to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1989, completing an MSc in Politics and Public Policy in 1990 and a PhD in Government in 1996. She worked as a researcher at LSE from 1991 to 1994 and a lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London from 1994 to 1999.
Research Associate
In 2022 Jonathan Bright became the Head of AI for Public Services at the Turing Institute, having previously been a faculty member of the OII. A political scientist, he specialises in computational and ‘big data’ approaches to the social sciences.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Scott A. Hale is an Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, and Turing Fellow. He develops and applies computer science techniques to the social sciences focusing on increasing equitable access to quality information.
Professor of Internet Studies
Philip N. Howard is a professor of sociology, information, and international affairs. He is Director of the Programme on Democracy and Technology, and is a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College.