AI in Government: A SIPA News Q&A with Political Anthropologist Eduardo Albrecht

In his new book, Political Automation: An Introduction to AI in Government and Its Impact on Citizens (Oxford University Press), Eduardo Albrecht, a SIPA professor and political anthropologist, examines how states deploy AI to make consequential decisions about their citizens. He proposes a revolutionary “Third House” of government—a virtual legislative chamber dedicated to AI oversight and governance.

Albrecht, who is also a senior fellow at the United Nations University’s Centre for Policy Research, draws on extensive fieldwork and ethnographic interviews with rights activists to document both the current state of algorithmic governance and emerging citizen responses.

In this SIPA News Q&A, Albrecht discusses the profound implications of AI-mediated governance, the risks of surrendering human judgment to automated systems, and his vision for preserving citizen agency through the creation of “digital citizens” who would represent citizens’ interests in an increasingly automated public sphere.

Read the full interview here