Use sortition (random selection of citizens) to staff AI oversight boards

Key insights

Across many quotes, sortition is paired with representativeness, expert briefing, facilitation, and extended deliberation, not presented as simple polling or an uninformed lottery.
The proposed authority of citizen bodies varies from making recommendations for policymakers to setting binding constraints, conditioning federal contracts, or constantly verifying AI outputs.
Several supporters frame citizen oversight as a response to governance dominated by corporations, governments, experts, or technocracy.
The suggested scale spans local government, national assemblies, a European assembly, and even a global citizens’ assembly.
Within the supportive quotes, there is more variation over permanence, scope, and authority than over the basic case for public involvement.

Arguments for

Public legitimacy and trust

Proponents say sortition can give the public genuine oversight over AI choices that otherwise risk remaining within expert, governmental, or technocratic circles. They argue that broader citizen participation can build trust and legitimacy and make AI strategies more responsive to societal concerns and expectations.

To build trust and legitimacy, processes such as citizens’ assemblies provide an effective participation mechanism. These assemblies consist of randomly selected individuals reflecting the broader population. Through structured meetings, participants receive expert briefings, eng…

World Bank · Jun 2026 · full quote
The proposal is straightforward: a randomly selected body of citizens—the Council—chooses a small set of model constitutions, and access to federal contracts is conditioned on adopting one of them. In short, it would become a procurement standard that a model adheres to one of th…

Kevin T. Frazier · Jun 15, 2026 · full quote
The report's call for a citizens' assembly on artificial intelligence and digitalisation is an important one. We need a national conversation. We need to move beyond the echo chambers of experts and bring this discussion into every living room in Ireland.

Darren O'Rourke · Feb 26, 2026 · full quote
Citizens' assemblies can play more than the role of getting feedback from ordinary citizens about what they think about these issues. Citizens are going to be exposed to this and are being exposed to it constantly, but they're also going to be hurt by it. Your constituents are go…

Colin Bennett · Mar 23, 2026 · full quote
we risk drifting into technocracy, where algorithms and experts, rather than citizens, set policy. They are randomly selected... They rotate in and out.

The Free City · full quote

Informed citizen deliberation

Supporters describe citizens’ assemblies as representative groups that spend significant time learning, receiving expert briefings, and deliberating across multiple perspectives before reaching recommendations. They present AI as well suited to this format and cite structured assemblies that produced expert-informed recommendations after many hours of participant learning.

Citizens assemblies, also called citizens juries or panels, generally refer to a randomly selected group of people who are broadly representative of a community spending significant time learning and collaborating through facilitated deliberation to form collective recommendation…

OECD · Jul 2026 · full quote
The Global Citizens Assembly recently used sortition to convene 100 diverse participants for a COP30-linked climate assembly, producing expert-informed policy recommendations based on 40+ hours of participant learning. This model of structured transnational dialogue could effecti…

Connected by Data · May 30, 2026 · full quote
Perhaps the most powerful tool of this kind is the citizens’ assembly: a representative cross-section of everyday people, like voluntary juries, selected by lottery (a practice called sortition) and given extensive expert briefing and skilled facilitation, then real authority to …

Justin Rosenstein · Mar 2026 · full quote
Our report recommends the establishment of a Citizens’ Assembly to consider how the country should deal with this transformation. Citizens’ Assemblies have previously helped develop approaches to complex societal challenges and generated real momentum for action. I believe the sc…

James Geoghegan · Jun 9, 2026 · full quote

Permanent public oversight

Some proposals call for standing or permanent citizen bodies on AI rather than one-off consultations. In these versions, randomly selected members would have a continuing, properly resourced role in shaping, overseeing, or verifying AI-related decisions and outputs.

A key recommendation for the UK Government is to establish a standing citizens’ assembly on AI and society. A citizens’ assembly is a group made up of members of the public, selected through a process of random sampling designed to reflect the demographic makeup of the wider popu…

University of Edinburgh · Jun 9, 2026 · full quote
Establish a permanent European citizens’ assembly on AI governance consisting of a representative sample of randomly selected EU citizens to guide decisions about acceptability of AI development and use.

Demos Helsinki · Feb 2026 · full quote
They have been used to discuss key questions such as how to fight climate change and amend national constitutions. And they have increasingly addressed concerns around data, artificial intelligence, and automated decision-making. [...] What if participatory models were used to c…

Data Justice Lab · full quote
Permanent Civic Review Board A randomly selected group of citizens constantly oversees and verifies: Proposal summaries, Understanding tests, AI outputs. Human oversight is always present — fresh, random citizens each time, reducing risk of corruption or capture.

The Civic Compact · full quote

Check concentrated power

Another line of argument is that random selection can check concentration of power in corporations, governments, or fixed elites. In these models, citizens may set binding goals and constraints, define acceptable objectives, or adjudicate disagreements among institutions and systems.

AI governance must be overseen by randomly selected citizen councils (Human Firewall) rather than corporations or governments.

Global Governance Frameworks · Jul 2026 · full quote
To achieve “trustworthy AI,” we need institutional innovation that is as ambitious and as rapid as technological innovation. For example, we could imagine citizens' assemblies, chosen by lot, tasked not with debating model architectures or computing power, but with defining objec…

Eric Hazan · Jul 22, 2026 · full quote
It proposes institutionally-distributed algorithmic governance (IDAG): an architecture in which separate, deliberately heterogeneous algorithmic systems—each with its own data, objective, and operator—are distributed across independent institutions and made to verify one another'…

Min Geon Kim · May 5, 2026 · full quote
Perhaps the most powerful tool of this kind is the citizens’ assembly: a representative cross-section of everyday people, like voluntary juries, selected by lottery (a practice called sortition) and given extensive expert briefing and skilled facilitation, then real authority to …

Justin Rosenstein · Mar 2026 · full quote
Permanent Civic Review Board A randomly selected group of citizens constantly oversees and verifies: Proposal summaries, Understanding tests, AI outputs. Human oversight is always present — fresh, random citizens each time, reducing risk of corruption or capture.

The Civic Compact · full quote

Middle ground

Complement, not substitute

Some supporters explicitly present sortition as a complement to existing democratic institutions, not a substitute for parliamentary or governmental decision-making. These versions emphasize citizen bodies that inform or oversee decisions, or influence them through procurement standards, rather than fully replacing elected authorities.

The Civic Assembly in Snohomish County thus provides an example of how citizen participation through random selection can also be used in relation to future technological issues: not as a substitute for parliamentary decisions, but as a well-founded complement to the political de…

Mehr Demokratie · Jun 8, 2026 · full quote
They have been used to discuss key questions such as how to fight climate change and amend national constitutions. And they have increasingly addressed concerns around data, artificial intelligence, and automated decision-making. [...] What if participatory models were used to c…

Data Justice Lab · full quote
The proposal is straightforward: a randomly selected body of citizens—the Council—chooses a small set of model constitutions, and access to federal contracts is conditioned on adopting one of them. In short, it would become a procurement standard that a model adheres to one of th…

Kevin T. Frazier · Jun 15, 2026 · full quote

Bounded citizen remit

A narrower version limits randomly selected citizens to questions of objectives, acceptability, constraints, or dispute resolution after expert input. On this view, citizens need not debate model architectures or computing power to play a decisive oversight role.

To achieve “trustworthy AI,” we need institutional innovation that is as ambitious and as rapid as technological innovation. For example, we could imagine citizens' assemblies, chosen by lot, tasked not with debating model architectures or computing power, but with defining objec…

Eric Hazan · Jul 22, 2026 · full quote
It proposes institutionally-distributed algorithmic governance (IDAG): an architecture in which separate, deliberately heterogeneous algorithmic systems—each with its own data, objective, and operator—are distributed across independent institutions and made to verify one another'…

Min Geon Kim · May 5, 2026 · full quote
Perhaps the most powerful tool of this kind is the citizens’ assembly: a representative cross-section of everyday people, like voluntary juries, selected by lottery (a practice called sortition) and given extensive expert briefing and skilled facilitation, then real authority to …

Justin Rosenstein · Mar 2026 · full quote

In the provided quotes, support for sortition-based AI oversight is broad, and the rationale is usually democratic legitimacy combined with structured public deliberation. The main differences concern design: whether randomly selected bodies should be periodic or standing, advisory or binding, and how they should relate to governments, experts, and existing decision-makers.

Cast Your Vote:

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For (30)

Ryu Je-myung
Second Vice Minister of Science and ICT of South Korea.

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votes For and says:

About 1,400 citizens applied, and we randomly selected 200 of them to participate as members of the evaluation panel. [...] Ultimately, 185 citizens participated.
AI Verified source (Aug 19, 2026)

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Citizens' Track on AI
Civil-society initiative advancing participatory and democratic governance of artificial intelligence.

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votes For and says:

A global citizens’ assembly could periodically convene to consider AI, bringing together 100 to 500 sortition-selected citizens from across the world.
AI Verified source (Jul 6, 2026)

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Parti Cooperative
Civic-technology cooperative that develops digital-democracy platforms and participatory AI-governance initiatives.

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votes For and says:

A full citizens’ assembly in the proper sense — a sortition-selected citizen panel deliberating in depth on AI governance agendas to produce recommendations.
AI Verified source (Jul 4, 2026)

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Global Governance Frameworks
Organization publishing a global-governance framework that proposes citizen-led AI oversight.

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votes For and says:

AI governance must be overseen by randomly selected citizen councils (Human Firewall) rather than corporations or governments.
AI Verified source (Jul 2026)

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OECD
International economic organisation

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votes For and says:

Citizens assemblies, also called citizens juries or panels, generally refer to a randomly selected group of people who are broadly representative of a community spending significant time learning and collaborating through facilitated deliberation to ...
more AI Verified source (Jul 2026)

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Kevin T. Frazier
Law professor; AI litigation scholar

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votes For and says:

The proposal is straightforward: a randomly selected body of citizens—the Council—chooses a small set of model constitutions, and access to federal contracts is conditioned on adopting one of them. In short, it would become a procurement standard tha...
more AI Verified source (Jun 15, 2026)

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Edinburgh Futures Institute
University of Edinburgh institute advancing interdisciplinary research and public engagement on data, artificial intelligence, and future governance.

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votes For and says:

A key recommendation for the UK Government is to establish a standing citizens’ assembly on AI and society. A citizens’ assembly is a group made up of members of the public, selected through a process of random sampling designed to reflect the demogr...
more AI Verified source (Jun 9, 2026)

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James Geoghegan
Irish Fine Gael TD and Vice Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence.

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votes For and says:

Our report recommends the establishment of a Citizens’ Assembly to consider how the country should deal with this transformation. Citizens’ Assemblies have previously helped develop approaches to complex societal challenges and generated real momentu...
more AI Verified source (Jun 9, 2026)

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University of Edinburgh
Public research university in Edinburgh; publisher of recommendations on democratic AI governance.

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votes For and says:

A key recommendation for the UK Government is to establish a standing citizens’ assembly on AI and society. A citizens’ assembly is a group made up of members of the public, selected through a process of random sampling designed to reflect the demogr...
more AI Verified source (Jun 9, 2026)

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Mehr Demokratie
German democracy advocacy organization

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votes For and says:

The Civic Assembly in Snohomish County thus provides an example of how citizen participation through random selection can also be used in relation to future technological issues: not as a substitute for parliamentary decisions, but as a well-founded ...
more AI Verified source (Jun 8, 2026)

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World Bank
International financial institution that publishes research and policy analysis on global development and the economic effects of artificial intelligence.

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votes For and says:

To build trust and legitimacy, processes such as citizens’ assemblies provide an effective participation mechanism. These assemblies consist of randomly selected individuals reflecting the broader population. Through structured meetings, participants...
more AI Verified source (Jun 2026)

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Connected by Data
Civic organization advocating collective, participatory data and AI governance.

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votes For and says:

The Global Citizens Assembly recently used sortition to convene 100 diverse participants for a COP30-linked climate assembly, producing expert-informed policy recommendations based on 40+ hours of participant learning. This model of structured transn...
more AI Verified source (May 30, 2026)

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Tim Davies
Open data and governance researcher

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votes For and says:

The Global Citizens Assembly recently used sortition to convene 100 diverse participants for a COP30-linked climate assembly, producing expert-informed policy recommendations based on 40+ hours of participant learning. This model of structured transn...
more AI Verified source (May 30, 2026)

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Min Geon Kim
Independent researcher and author of a 2026 paper proposing citizen-adjudicated algorithmic governance.

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votes For and says:

It proposes institutionally-distributed algorithmic governance (IDAG): an architecture in which separate, deliberately heterogeneous algorithmic systems—each with its own data, objective, and operator—are distributed across independent institutions a...
more AI Verified source (May 5, 2026)

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Colin Bennett
Professor of political science at the University of Victoria and scholar of privacy, data protection, and AI governance.

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votes For and says:

Citizens' assemblies can play more than the role of getting feedback from ordinary citizens about what they think about these issues. Citizens are going to be exposed to this and are being exposed to it constantly, but they're also going to be hurt b...
more AI Verified source (Mar 23, 2026)

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Justin Rosenstein
Co-founder of One Project and Asana; founding advisor to the Center for Humane Technology

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votes For and says:

Perhaps the most powerful tool of this kind is the citizens’ assembly: a representative cross-section of everyday people, like voluntary juries, selected by lottery (a practice called sortition) and given extensive expert briefing and skilled facilit...
more AI Verified source (Mar 2026)

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Malcolm Byrne
Irish TD (Fianna Fáil)

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votes For and says:

Our report recommends that we should have a citizens' assembly on AI, digitalisation and technology. It is critical that we engage all sectors of society in discussions on the potential benefits but also the pitfalls of this new technology.
AI Verified source (Feb 26, 2026)

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Project Save the World
International peace and global-governance organization that convened the AI Risk Inquiry.

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votes For and says:

Finally, the decisions about particular problematic issues should be mainly determined by deliberations representing humankind at large. There are proposals for developing a UN Parliamentary Assembly using sortition as a selection device. This body c...
more AI Verified source (Feb 7, 2026)

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Demos Helsinki
Independent Finnish think tank and research organisation focused on democratic governance, societal transformation, and public-interest technology.

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Establish a permanent European citizens’ assembly on AI governance consisting of a representative sample of randomly selected EU citizens to guide decisions about acceptability of AI development and use.
AI Verified source (Feb 2026)

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DemocracyNext
Deliberative democracy nonprofit

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votes For and says:

The core belief and insight is that a wide diversity of everyday people — selected by sortition (lottery) to be broadly representative of all walks of life, deliberating in conditions that enable grappling with complexity and finding super majority c...
more AI Verified source (Jan 29, 2026)

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Data Justice Lab
Research group on data justice

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votes For and says:

They have been used to discuss key questions such as how to fight climate change and amend national constitutions. And they have increasingly addressed concerns around data, artificial intelligence, and automated decision-making. [...] What if parti...
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J. Kelsey
Writer, FreeDAO contributor

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votes For and says:

Our proposed model would randomly gather a Citizen Assembly as Guardians of a DAO from our existing Freeos participants — already well versed in democratic decision making on a weekly basis. The Guardians of this DAO (this proposal calls it CitAI DAO...
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The Civic Compact
Civic governance initiative

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votes For and says:

Permanent Civic Review Board A randomly selected group of citizens constantly oversees and verifies: Proposal summaries, Understanding tests, AI outputs. Human oversight is always present — fresh, random citizens each time, reducing risk of corr...
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Terry Bouricius
Sortition advocate; former Vermont legislator

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votes For and says:

Eventually, on a national or state level, [...] AI regulation, [...] might be moved from politicians to large, diverse, randomly selected panels.
Unverifiable source (2025)

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Eric Hazan
Entrepreneur, teacher at HEC Paris and Sciences Po, and associate researcher at the AI and Society Institute at École Normale Supérieure.

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votes For and says:

To achieve “trustworthy AI,” we need institutional innovation that is as ambitious and as rapid as technological innovation. For example, we could imagine citizens' assemblies, chosen by lot, tasked not with debating model architectures or computing ...
more Disputed source (Jul 22, 2026)

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Edinburgh Data and AI Exchange

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A key recommendation for the UK Government is to establish a standing citizens’ assembly on AI and society. The report argues this should be a permanent, properly resourced mechanism through which the public has a genuine and continuing role in shapi...
more Disputed source (Jun 9, 2026)

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Oliver Escobar
Chair of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation at the University of Edinburgh; deliberative democracy scholar and citizens' assembly designer

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votes For and says:

A key recommendation for the UK Government is to establish a standing citizens’ assembly on AI and society.
Disputed source (Jun 9, 2026)

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Snohomish County Civic Assembly
A randomly selected residents’ assembly convened to deliberate on AI use in Snohomish County government.

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The Snohomish County Civic Assembly brought together a group of randomly selected residents to deliberate on the future of AI use in Snohomish County government.
Unverifiable source (Jun 2026)

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Darren O'Rourke
Irish Sinn Féin TD and member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence.

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votes For and says:

The report's call for a citizens' assembly on artificial intelligence and digitalisation is an important one. We need a national conversation. We need to move beyond the echo chambers of experts and bring this discussion into every living room in Ire...
more Unverifiable source (Feb 26, 2026)

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The Free City
Civic reform nonprofit

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we risk drifting into technocracy, where algorithms and experts, rather than citizens, set policy. They are randomly selected... They rotate in and out.
Disputed source

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