In recent years, democracy movements have experienced a historic decline in their ability to challenge autocratic governments effectively. This decline is due, at least in part, to the changing technology landscape, which has allowed autocratic governments to monopolize the advantages of breakthrough technologies to strengthen their power. The relatively slow adoption of AI tools by democracy movements may be widening the gulf between these movements and their adversaries—a gap that may grow even larger if movements do not integrate these technologies now. Like past disruptive innovations, AI as a technology has the potential to fundamentally transform societal norms, relationships, and governance. However, AI offers unique advantages in speed, scale, scope, and sophistication relative to preexisting technologies. With its capabilities evolving rapidly, those who do not adopt AI tools risk being left behind, further increasing power differentials between those who have embraced the technology and those who have avoided it. Despite some exceptions, civil society groups have been slow to adopt sustained strategic thinking, planning, and training in using emerging technologies like AI to their benefit. Instead, those who work at the intersection of AI and social movements typically focus on:
1. Analyzing the dangers of governments’ cynical co-optation of AI to damage and undermine movements and activists.
2. Using AI, including large language models (LLMs), to support research on social movements by improving data collection, analysis, and data accessibility.
3. Advocating for tech regulations and the ethical use of AI.
While these are all worthy areas of focus, a large gap exists in social movements’ ability to use AI tools for their own tactical, strategic, and organizational needs, particularly for difficult or costly tasks, such as background research, systematic power mapping, intelligence gathering, sentiment analysis, predictive modeling, and strategic coaching. Despite clear interest in such tools among some civil society actors,6 questions remain about their short- and long-term impact on movement outcomes. To explore these issues, we convened a workshop in December 2024. This report summarizes the proceedings and offers several recommendations based on the discussion