In 2025, Carnegie California published major papers and articles on democratic reform in California, gender equity and democracy in Korea, gender equity and AI in California, AI and democracy, AI and surprises, state-level AI policy, and transnational migration.
As we move into 2026, we invited four outside experts with whom we collaborated this year to reflect on the ways storytelling has advanced their understanding of their fields of AI policy, democracy and technology, democracy and climate mobility, and subnational diplomacy.
(“Policy in Other Words 2024” can be found here.)
Democracy and Technology
Over the course of 2025, Carnegie California continued its collaboration with the state of California on Engaged California, the state’s pilot deliberative democracy program. Carnegie California convened scholars and practitioners to share best practices for evolving democratic processes and practices in California and beyond, with a particular focus on the emerging new applications for AI.
We asked Jeffery Marino, director of California’s Office of Data and Innovation, what story or piece of art—visual, written, performed—best advanced his understanding of or ability to explain the intersection of democracy and technology and in what way.
Jeffery Marino: I return often to Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” because it destabilizes the boundaries between humans, institutions, and machines. That perspective feels essential as generative AI helps us synthesize thousands of resident perspectives and convert dialogue into actionable data that improves public services. Haraway reminds me that these systems construct political meaning by shaping what becomes visible and how we respond. Her work gives me a vocabulary for describing AI not as mere modernization, but as part of democracy’s evolving infrastructure of listening—and, ultimately, rebuilding trust.
Climate Migration and Mobility
In February, Carnegie California and Carnegie’s program on Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics collaborated with Zocalo Public Square and the Natural Museum History of Los Angeles County for a wide-ranging discussion on migration policy and borders, international aid and cooperation, and climate mobility. An ongoing series by nonresident scholar Hiroshi Motomura has continued to add scholarly depth and expertise to migration-related issues such as refugee policy and community-based approaches.
We asked Moira Shourie, executive director of Zócalo Public Square, what story or piece of art—visual, written, performed—best advanced her understanding of or ability to explain migration policy and in what way.
Moira Shourie: Earlier this year, on a warm August afternoon in Chicago, I had chills standing before Kira Dominguez Hultgren’s tapestry titled “So, I told her I was half-Indian.” Mounted on a simple wooden frame, this artwork unraveled for me the most knotty complications around migration policy in America. Were the red, white, and blue threads representative of a decomposed flag or a reclaimed one?
To untangle this problem and respond to Hultgren’s work, Zócalo hosted a program titled “How Is Migration Woven Into America?” The panel of scholars, historians, fashion designers, and musicians wrestled with concepts about assimilation as expressed by Frederick Douglass’ ideal of “a composite nation”; how cultural practices travel with migrants in the form of food, music, and clothing; the narrow interpretations of race as determined by census check boxes; and how migration policy is built around our very idea of America, shaped by all of our stories weaving together.
AI Policy
In October, we released the “Carnegie California AI Survey,” the broadest and deepest survey yet done of how Californians think about the impact of the emerging technology on jobs, democracy, and communities. Although they are concerned about issues from privacy to misinformation and access to training, Californians sense that the technology will have major impacts on the economy and government.
We asked Samantha Gordon, one of the survey’s advisers and chief advocacy officer at TechEquity, and Paris McCoy, executive director of TEC Leimert, what story or piece of art—visual, written, performed—best advanced their understandings of or ability to explain the role of policy in AI’s trajectory looking forward.
Samantha Gordon: The magnificent book Empire of AI by Karen Hao, who was able to make an otherwise mundane topic—the growth of large language models—into a propulsive story that provided deeper background and context, and a frame by which to understand much of the current AI discussions happening throughout our society. I was moved by her ability to hold such an expansive view of the field while at the same time explaining many of the historic and present-day beats that shape our current AI story in the United States.
Paris McCoy: I think of the Billboard-charting AI-generated music artist Xania Monet when considering the role policy plays in AI’s trajectory. Her continued chart success, despite mounting legal and regulatory pressure on platforms such as Suno, which was used to create Xania Monet, demonstrates that policy is not secondary or adjacent to AI-enabled tools that artists use to create their art. It directly shapes how the industry governs AI tools, defining authorship, intellectual property rights, distribution, and monetization, and ultimately whether AI-enabled creative technologies strengthen or destabilize the creative industries.
Subnational Diplomacy and the Future of Cities
In December, we released the “2025 Carnegie California Global Affairs Survey.” The third-annual survey revealed a continuing, and deep, belief in diplomacy and development. It also showed a profound concern for the health of democracy in the United States. The survey included a notable uptick in support from 2024 for subnational diplomacy by state and local officials.
We asked Michele Acuto, vice president for global engagement at the University of Bristol, what story or piece of art—visual, written, performed—best advanced his understanding of or ability to explain urban transformation.
Michele Acuto: City diplomacy is where the high politics of diplomacy meets the street politics of everyday city life, whether it’s our own familiar one, or that of the billions of urban dwellers in the countries our own governments clash with. So maybe today a mundane urban sense of city life “out there” is all the more needed in today’s turbulent geopolitics.
If you want a little gem that mixes both the big picture of geopolitics (how China is changing) and the nuance needed to grasp urbanization (how cities are changing), I would be remiss not to recommend I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan, translated masterfully by Jack Hargreaves for Penguin-Allen Lane. It is a wonderfully detailed, personal story of a mundane urban nomad, Hu, author of a hugely successful 2020 blog on his travails as a gig worker moving across major metropolises. In that it’s also hugely relatable as California, just like my West of England, is deeply embedded in gig economics. I ended up with a very early release copy courtesy of a friend who is helping me with my current project on how global cities work at night. By page three, where we imagine with Hu how a hundred forklifts at 2 a.m. might sound like the incoming thunder of a mighty storm, I was captivated. By page 200, I wanted to read it again. Joe Moran’s review in The Guardian has been spot on for me, as I had feelings of echoes of Haruki Murakami when reading Hu jumping between personal reflection, near-surrealism, and wonderfully atmospheric depiction of how contemporary Chinese urbanism is shaping the lives of so many depending on changing urban economics. I think reading more of these strangely familiar stories of urban life across geopolitical barriers like the U.S.-China one is exactly what we need as a recipe for a better 2026.
