What does AI have to do with democracy? More than most people realize. In this episode — recorded on My Robot Teacher's one-year anniversary — we're joined by Kim Bisheff (Journalism, Cal Poly SLO) and Emmy-award winning professor Foaad Khosmood (Computer Engineering, Cal Poly SLO), the team behind the Digital Democracy Project, an AI-powered tool that makes state legislative proceedings searchable, transparent, and accessible to journalists and ordinary citizens alike.
In this episode:
What the Digital Democracy Project is, how it works, and why it won an Emmy
AI as a civic tool: using machine attention to shine light on the government proceedings nobody has time to read
Why AI didn't start with ChatGPT — and why that history matters
How Kim uses AI in the journalism classroom to teach story-finding, accountability reporting, and the politics of summarization
The hard lessons of the social media era — and how public-interest technologists are trying not to repeat them
Jargon as an enemy of transparency — and AI as a potential democratizer of dense government language
The difference between AI built for engagement and AI built for the public good
"AI is not a monster to be feared. It's a monster to befriend."
My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio.
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