Shining a Light: How AI Can Make the Federal Budget Understandable and Strengthen Our Democracy

AI discusses how a specialized Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool could make the complex and opaque federal budget understandable to the public, thereby enhancing transparency and strengthening democratic accountability. Such an AI, augmented by a "mixture of experts" and linking directly to source text ("radical transparency"), could offer personalized insights by integrating external data like the Census. While acknowledging challenges like AI bias and political resistance, the text argues that even an imperfect tool would be a significant improvement, fostering more informed civic engagement and helping to level the playing field in policy debates.