Lecture Review | "Democratizing AI Governance" by Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law Professor and Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

time：2025-08-05

On July 9, 2025, at the invitation of the Law School of Renmin University of China, the Institute of Future Rule of Law at Renmin University of China, the Institute of Foreign-Related Rule of Law at Renmin University of China, and the Center for Public Law Research at Renmin University of China, Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, attended the Distinguished Jurists Forum of the Law School of Renmin University of China and delivered an insightful lecture on "Democratic Governance of Artificial Intelligence." During the lecture, Professor Lessig divided democratic governance into three stages and analyzed the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to democratic governance using the concept of a "map of mind." He argued that artificial intelligence traps people in more powerful "echo chambers," where they can easily access information that aligns with their existing "map of mind." This type of information not only constitutes the majority of people's sources of information but also reinforces the influence of the "map of mind" on people's behavior and democratic decision-making by catering to their cognitive and ideological preferences. As a result, the emergence of artificial intelligence has exacerbated the issue of group polarization in democratic governance.