Each week the college hosts a community dinner called Ration Club. It's open to anyone who'd like to find out more about the college and its work. To find out more or if you'd like to attend, please register.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly playing an important part in our sociopolitical life. Some worry about the erosion of democracy by propagating disinformation and entrapping citizens in epistemic bubbles; others are convinced of AI’s ability to facilitate direct democracy and make public deliberation more efficient. 

​This is the first event in a series on democratic AI that sets out to explore how AI tools can be leveraged for democratic deliberations, collective decision-making, and enhanced social cohesion. 

​Join us to explore the Habermas Machine, created by Google DeepMind, in a hands-on workshop held at Newspeak House.

​​The event will kick off with a short talk introducing the Habermas Machine and its role in fostering meaningful group deliberation. Participants will then split into small groups to discuss pressing political and social questions, guided by a structured process facilitated by a version of the Habermas Machine itself.

​​Michiel Bakker and MH Tessler, the creators of the Habermas Machine, will oversee the process and facilitate the synthesis of insights from each group. Discussions will incorporate factual briefings, freeform debates, and collaborative drafting of group statements, culminating in a final vote to reveal consensus and divergence.

​​Whether you’re curious about AI’s role in democracy, enjoy collaborative discussion, or simply want to meet others passionate about democratic AI, this event offers a unique opportunity to get involved.

​​Spaces are limited—sign up now to reserve your spot!

​Can’t make this event?

​Sign up for the mailing list to be updated on future events in this series: Subscribe.

​About the event organisers

​Simon Wisdom and Yung-Hsuan Wu are both 2024-25 fellow candidates of the Newspeak House. Learn more about their work from the Newspeak House fellowship cohort website.

A monthly London-based meetup for members of the rationalist diaspora. The diaspora includes, but is not limited to, LessWrong, Astral Codex Ten, rationalist tumblrsphere, and parts of the Effective Altruism movement.

You don’t have to identify as a rationalist to attend: basically, if you think we seem like interesting people you’d like to hang out with, welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.

Our reading list for this time is:

• Deadly by Default (https://homosabiens.substack.com/p/deadly-by-default)
  
• Safety isn’t safety without a social model (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/F2voF4pr3BfejJawL/safety-isn-t-safety-without-a-social-model-or-dispelling-the)
  
• Focus on the places where you feel shocked everyone’s dropping the ball (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Zp6wG5eQFLGWwcG6j/focus-on-the-places-where-you-feel-shocked-everyone-s)

We’ll start to discuss these around 3. If you have articles you want to suggest for future readings, you can do that at https://redd.it/v3646u.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​In this session we will discuss results from the previous session, including challenges of interacting with others’ systems and benefits of networked knowledge discovery.

Early Studies is a signals intelligence company dedicated to understanding the complexities of human behavior, attitudes, and societal change. At the heart of their approach is the Future Perfect Methodology, a framework that combines first principles thinking, social circle polling, and the triple tense technique to explore not just what people think, but why they think it, and how their beliefs evolve over time. They specialize in areas where understanding human behavior is critical, from geopolitics and public policy to consumer behavior and brand strategy.

Early Studies invites you to its first working group, an moderated open discussion with a revolutionary concept; everyone has to generalise and predict what they believe people feel, the first forum focusing on your understanding of others instead of your opinion. The working group content and ideas will result in studies and research to quantify the concepts discussed and further discourse in society.

Early Studies will also launch “Inaugural”, an exhaustive representative dataset of American identity, values, dynamics, dreams, life and influence to form the basis of a discussion about where the country is heading under Trump’s second presidency. Three speakers will present their analysis on this data.

Are you an engineer, developer, or someone passionate about building AI for the public good? Then come and join us for our second Building AI for Good Showcase & Meetup!

​We’re building a community of technologists and innovators committed to leveraging AI for social good.. Our events aim to be exciting (show, not tell!), technically focused (but accessible) and highly participatory – and we’re looking for speakers!

​🎤 Call for Speakers

​Whether you have:

• A 20-minute showcase of your kick-ass demo
• A 5-minute pitch for an idea you’d like feedback on
• Anything in between!

​We want to hear from you! Polish not required – we’re all about sharing ideas and fostering collaboration.

​Talks should be short (ideally well under 30 minutes), but punchy, and focused on showing not telling - show us the cool thing you’re working on, or come ask for collaborators on that one mad idea you’ve had!

​⏰ Schedule

18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Demo 1
19:25 - Demo 2
19:50 - Demo 3
20:15 - Community notices and mingling
22:00 - Close

​🤝 Support

​This event is kindly supported by the Incubator for AI and Newspeak House

💡 Want to Help?

​We believe great engineering happens with:

• Good food (ideally pizza 🍕, but we’re flexible)
• Great spaces (got a venue to share? 🏢)
• Amazing people (that’s you! 👋)

​📢 Submit a talk or offer support

​💬 Continue the Conversation

​Want to keep chatting? So do we! You can find us…

• On the CivicAI Community on Whatsapp
• On our (brand new) Building AI for Good Discord community

We (a motley crew of Civil Servants) are hosting another Civil Service Social. Networks and community can help make many things easier when working across government - the Civil Service Socials are a chance to catch up with old friends and meet new colleagues.

​This is an ideal chance to meet new folks - one of the team will greet you at the door to welcome you to the space and answer any questions. ​We’re looking forward to seeing you!

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

In this hack night, we’ll explore the inner workings of an MP’s office, focusing on how its processes operate and identifying opportunities where technology can streamline and improve efficiency. This session will provide practical insights into the daily functions of an MP’s office, with a forward-looking view on innovation.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​In this session, we’ll dive into the world of political technology, exploring what makes certain tools effective. We’ll examine three key campaign technologies, discussing their successes and weaknesses and the reasons behind them. We’ll also cover how to identify opportunities for innovation within campaign processes. This is a great opportunity to understand what works in political tech and how innovation shapes the future of campaigning.