Constitutional Moment

In the AI Story

Allen developed the concept through her work with the GETTING-Plurality research network, which identifies 'new eras of technological innovation, such as artificial intelligence and decentralized social technologies' as bringing society 'to a constitutional moment.' The designation carries weight because Allen's prior scholarship on the original American constitutional moment gives her a specific understanding of what such moments require: foundational institutional design, sustained public deliberation, and the willingness to build structures whose effects will extend far beyond the lifetimes of their designers.

The parallel with the American founding is instructive in what it illuminates and what it warns. The founders faced the question of how to govern shared power—how to construct institutions that would channel political authority toward collective purposes rather than toward the aggrandizement of the powerful. They produced a Constitution that, among other things, represented a set of constraints the powerful accepted on their own power in order to make collective self-governance possible. The Bill of Rights limited government action. The separation of powers limited any single branch. The amendment process ensured the constraints themselves could evolve.

The AI moment poses an analogous question about shared intelligence—the governance of the infrastructure on which productive, civic, and educational life increasingly depends. The question is not whether this infrastructure will be governed. It will be governed, by someone, according to someone's values, in someone's interest. The question is whether it will be governed democratically—whether the people whose lives are shaped by AI will have genuine voice in the institutions that shape it.

The warning embedded in the parallel is that constitutional moments are rare and their outcomes are durable. The American founding produced institutions that have structured political life for over two centuries, for better and for worse. The institutional choices being made now about AI governance will similarly structure the decades ahead. Allen's insistence on treating this as a constitutional moment is a demand that the choices be made with the seriousness and inclusiveness such moments require, rather than left to the default of unaccountable corporate decision-making.

Origin

Allen began using the 'constitutional moment' framing through her work with the GETTING-Plurality research network in the early 2020s. The designation has since been taken up by a wider community of researchers and policymakers working on democratic governance of AI.

Key Ideas

Constitutional, not regulatory. The scale of the AI challenge requires foundational institutional design, not incremental policy adjustment.

Shared intelligence governance. The AI moment poses for intelligence infrastructure what the founding posed for political power: how shall it be shared?

Durable outcomes. The institutional choices being made now will structure collective life for generations.

Inclusive deliberation required. Constitutional moments demand the serious and inclusive deliberation their lasting consequences warrant.

Default to corporate governance. The alternative to democratic constitutional work is governance by default through unaccountable corporate decision-making.