News in the Category "Text"

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AI Is a Power Amplifier. The Future Depends on Who Turns the Dials.

In “Rewiring Democracy,” Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders explore how AI could strengthen democracy or undermine it.

  • Kevin Dickinson
  • Big Think
  • December 9, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • AI’s impact on democracy depends less on the technology itself and more on how people choose to apply it.
  • Schneier and Sanders argue that governments and citizens must demand responsible uses of AI that enhance speed, fairness, and accessibility in public systems.
  • Without strong, activity-based regulation and public alternatives, AI risks concentrating political power and accelerating authoritarian tendencies.

You’d be forgiven for thinking AI represents a classic Faustian bargain, as every reported blessing seems tied to a sinister curse…

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Book Review: Rewiring Democracy Offers a Nuanced Examination of AI’s Impact on Our Civic and Social Fabric

Readers need not be computer science graduates to understand the critical points being made. The result is a book that speaks to policymakers, civic technologists, and public servants without burying them in jargon.

  • Samuel Ross
  • The Cascadia Advocate
  • December 7, 2025

Artificial intelligence has become perhaps the top buzzword of the decade. It has become impossible to walk a block without hearing an ad, seeing a sign on a bus, or eavesdropping into a conversation without noting the presence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, or an offering from a  Silicon Valley startup.

Evident in the latest round of layoffs in greater Seattle, eager Big Tech executives are plowing ahead on a dangerous course they’ve charted. It is exhausting to find ourselves, once again, being sold every moment of our lives by a faceless corporation…

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How AI Could Save Democracy Instead of Destroying It

  • Ellsworth Toohey
  • Boing Boing
  • December 4, 2025

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders are asking the right question in their new book Rewiring Democracy: not whether AI will change politics, but how we can shape that change. The cybersecurity expert (behind Data and Goliath) and data scientist tackle something most AI discussions skip entirely—the nitty-gritty of democratic governance.

Their timing couldn’t be better. AI is already being used to draft legislation, analyze court documents, and run local political campaigns (most politics happens at low budgets, they point out, where AI tools can level the playing field for first-time candidates). The authors argue that AI amplifies power—and the crucial question is whose power gets amplified…

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AI Has a Democracy Problem—Here’s Why

A thorough examination of artificial intelligence’s promise in politics rests on a thorny premise: democracy is an information system.

  • Virginia Eubanks
  • Nature
  • November 18, 2025

Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders MIT Press (2025)

The tsunami of writing on artificial intelligence tends towards either bald hype or panicked dystopianism. Proponents say that AI will revolutionize health care, drive business growth and become our new best friend. But for its critics, AI could cause massive unemployment, perpetuate fake news and pose an extinction risk to humankind.

In Rewiring Democracy, cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier and data scientist Nathan Sanders offer a welcome middle path by focusing on practical politics. In a heartfelt, if workmanlike, way, they craft a framework for maximizing the democratic potential of AI. Yet, by shrinking and distorting the vexing political challenges that the world faces today to fit a single solution—AI—they short-change the frustrating glories of living together as human beings…

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Ben’s Book of the Month: Rewiring Democracy

  • Ben Rothke
  • RSA Conference
  • November 4, 2025

At the Infosec World 2025 conference last week, AI dominated discussions and vendor displays. One sparsely attended speaker joked that including AI in the title of his talk would have drawn a larger crowd.

When I heard about Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship (MIT Press) by Bruce Schneier and Dr. Nathan Sanders, I expected a harsh critique of AI’s impact on democracy, but the book instead presents a nuanced thesis on how AI will transform, rather than simply threaten, our political systems…

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SRI Appoints Bruce Schneier as Visiting Senior Policy Fellow

‍Global security expert Bruce Schneier joins University of Toronto’s Munk School and the Schwartz Reisman Institute as a visiting fellow to tackle one of today’s defining questions: how can we build AI systems—and societies—that people can truly trust?

  • Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Policy
  • October 28, 2025

Few thinkers have done more to reframe how we understand security in a networked world than Bruce Schneier. To him, security isn’t just about cryptography or code—it’s about trust, power, and the human choices embedded in every system we build.

For three decades, Schneier has asked what it really means to be secure, and who gets to decide. From designing cryptographic algorithms to writing bestselling books that redefined public conversations on privacy and power, the Harvard-based security expert has become one of the world’s most trusted interpreters of how technology shapes society…

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Tech Experts See Artificial Intelligence as a Key Resource Ahead of Local Elections

  • Maya Y. Fu, Helia M. Hung, and Adelaide L.D. Roger
  • The Harvard Crimson
  • October 23, 2025

Cambridge’s local elections are just around the corner—and scientists Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders said that artificial intelligence will be a critical tool to help inform voters before they head to the polls.

Schneier and Sanders, a Harvard Kennedy School lecturer, co-authored the book "Rewiring Democracy" that was released on Oct. 21. The two appeared at a Cambridge Public Library panel to share more about how citizens can use AI to get involved in politics on Wednesday evening.

They noted that Cambridge’s municipal elections on Nov. 4 are a prime opportunity for voters to use AI. With the most crowded field of candidates in recent memory, Schneier—a New York Times bestselling author—said the technology can be used to help summarize information about candidates…

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Schneier Tries to Rip the Rose-Colored AI Glasses from the Eyes of Congress

  • Thomas Claburn
  • The Register
  • June 11, 2025

Security guru Bruce Schneier played the skunk at the garden party in a Thursday federal hearing on AI’s use in the government, focusing on the risks many are ignoring.

“The other speakers mostly talked about how cool AI was—and sometimes about how cool their own company was—but I was asked by the Democrats to specifically talk about DOGE and the risks of exfiltrating our data from government agencies and feeding it into AIs,” Schneier explained in a blog post.

DOGE stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s a White House initiative, run until recently by centi-billionaire Elon Musk, that has been rifling through government databases and ordering layoffs at various government agencies in the name of cost savings and efficiency. Its staff cuts have been so extensive that the Trump administration reportedly …

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Harvard’s Schneier Gives Lawmakers a Tour Through DOGE-Driven AI Risks

  • Charlie Mitchell
  • Inside AI Policy
  • June 6, 2025

The Trump administration’s DOGE initiative to revamp federal systems and scale back the workforce has involved unvetted uses of artificial intelligence to comb through sensitive data and has exacerbated the government’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities, according to computer scientist, activist and Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Bruce Schneier.

“Data security breaches present significant dangers to everyone in the United States, from private citizens to corporations to government agencies to elected officials,” Schneier testified at a June 5 House Oversight hearing…

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What Magic Johnson and Bruce Schneier Taught Us at RSAC 2025

  • Tom Spring
  • SC Media
  • May 5, 2025

At first glance, Bruce Schneier and Magic Johnson have about as much in common as a firewall and a fast break. But last week was the annual RSAC confab, where the agendas can read like someone spun a roulette wheel loaded with cyber policy, threat intel—and apparently, NBA legends.

Last Tuesday, Schneier delivered his keynote on “AI, Security, and Trust,” a cerebral clinic on why the tech world is barreling toward a cliff. On Wednesday, former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson took the stage with “The Art of the Assist,” where he served business wisdom with a side of charisma. It’s the kind of conference whiplash RSAC has perfected: one minute you’re deep in machine learning risk models, the next you’re in a standing ovation for a guy who redefined the no-look pass…

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.