A white paper titled A Citizens’ Track on AI Governance: Agency, Alignment & Accountability was published on 6 July 2026, to coincide with the opening of the UN Global Dialogue. This paper’s authors are from the University of Sheffield's Centre for Machine Intelligence, Connected By Data, the Ada Lovelace Institute and ISWE Foundation. The white paper explains what a citizens’ track is, why we need it, and how to achieve it. A citizens’ track would make public voice in AI governance the norm: to go beyond listening and ensure two-way dialogue.
This necessitates three things: a top-down engagement rooted in global multi-stakeholder governance, bottom-up engagement from community assemblies, and a strong connection between the two by way of a specially designed ‘docking point’ infrastructure introduced in the white paper.
The white paper formally launches at the event also titled 'Citizens’ Track on AI Governance: Agency, Alignment & Accountability'. This official UN Global Dialogue side event is a breakfast roundtable (with online attendance) where the authors will share their visions for the future of public voices shaping AI governance. As well as a presentation from Tim Davies launching the white paper, Dr Oman will launch the PAVE Case Book with Octavia Field Reid that has been enabled by the University of Sheffield and Centre for Machine Intelligence seed funding.
The new PAVE (Public AI Voice and Engagement) Case Book forms the evidence foundation of the citizens’ track. It presents case studies on over 80 participatory and deliberative processes focused on AI in the last five years. These have included over 200,000 participants from more than 95 countries and involved over 280 different organisations from governments, industry, academia and civil society. It directly responds to the Public Voices in AI Evidence Review, where Dr Oman argued that the evidence informing AI governance about people’s perspectives was inadequately representing those who are most negatively affected by (but with the most to gain) from AI development and regulation.
You can interact with the Case Book, as well as read about its rationale and motivation in Oman et al’s short paper, which also launches this week.
An exhibition, hosted by the University of Sheffield's Centre for Machine Intelligence is taking place at the AI for Good Global summit. The exhibition (at booth 111) features the University of Sheffield-led Let’s Talk AI awareness campaign and resources, together with a special UN edit preview of a Sean Lovell’s documentary about the campaign. Let’s Talk AI sits as one of a number of other exemplary cases of participatory AI from around the world in the exhibition.
The exhibition’s primary focus is the newly launched PAVE Case Book. Booth 111 is an opportunity for the general public, and experts in Geneva for the United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance, AI for Good Global summit and WSIS (The World Summit on the Information Society) to interact with the platform-based interface and the ideas and evidence that inform the call for a Citizens’ Track on AI Governance and the accompanying White Paper. You can browse profiles of individual cases or explore examples of participatory AI on the interactive map.
An opinion piece, hosted by the Ada Lovelace Institute, outlines how and why Dr Oman and her colleagues are working towards the Citizens’ Track on AI. It also outlines how it is part of a longer scheme of work for the University of Sheffield and our third-sector colleagues who have long worked to address inequalities, technologies, issues with the evidence, and how governance can intervene.
On Wednesday 8th July, a second side event takes place at UN HQ (16:15 - 18:00). A Citizens’ Track on AI Governance: From Theory to Practice will bring together practitioners, funders, and advocates focused on inclusive and democratic AI governance. The plan is to review everything already prepared to move forward and co-design practical next steps that can deliver a Citizens’ Track on AI governance linked to both the ongoing United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance and the upcoming 2027 Geneva AI Summit. It concludes a full day of Multistake-holder Convening on AI Governance organised in partnership with PAIRS, Geneva Graduate Institute, MAP-AI, Global Network Initiative, Global South Network on Trustworthy AI, OHCHR B-Tech Project, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR).
Acknowledgements
The authors and organisers named above would like to thank the many individuals and organisations who have contributed to the development of the citizens’ track initiative, the white paper, the accompanying PAVE case book and all the events and activities through working group calls and ad-hoc conversations. Most of which are largely in-kind.
This work is informed and inspired by the work of practitioners and community members across the world, from the pioneers of the global citizens’ assembly on food systems and climate, to the hundreds of participants who have shared work at the Participatory AI Research and Practice Symposium (PAIRS) exploring how the voices of affected communities can be centred in AI governance.
The University of Sheffield, together with the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, AI Collaborative and PAIRS, has provided the seed funding, and others have provided considerable in-kind time and effort (Connected by Data, Ada Lovelace Institute, University of Sheffield Centre for Machine Intelligence, and Iswe Foundation).
