Community-Centered AI Governance

Abstract

This paper presents two projects that examine local governance and community participation in AI policymaking and infrastructure development in the United States. The first analyzes 77 AI policies, enacted by local governments in the U.S., using qualitative thematic analysis to identify how cities articulate counter-imaginaries of AI governance centered on democratic oversight, rights-based regulation, and place-based priorities. The second uses community-engaged workshops in central Illinois to examine how residents understand and contest the expansion of hyperscale data centers, with attention to their environmental, social, economic, and political impacts. These projects highlight how local governments and communities participate in shaping alternative approaches to AI governance that foreground democratic participation, accountability, and the material conditions of AI development and deployment.