Beth Simone Noveck says AI can change democracy for the better— if we choose to use it that way

By Kevin Chang Barnum,

Khalilah Brown-Dean, Erica McIntosh, Robyn Doyon-Aitken , Megan Fitzgerald

Published October 16, 2026 at 9:15 AM EDT

Beth Simone Noveck, Director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University and former Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House.

A lot of conversation around AI focuses on it as an existential threat. But if AI has destructive potential, does it also have the capacity to do good? This hour, we're talking about AI and the choice we can make about how we use it. Our guest is Beth Simone Noveck, Director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University and former Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House. Her new book is Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy.

Beth Simone Noveck: Professor and Director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University. She is also former Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House. Her new book is Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy.

GUEST:

Beth Simone Noveck: Professor and Director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University. She is also former Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House. Her new book is Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy.

Special thanks to our interns Julian Clarke-Dixon and Cooper Formica.

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