#rp26 speaker Annette Zimmermann: How to fight broligarchy by democratizing AI

Currently, there's lots of enthusiasm about people integrating AI into their daily lives. Widespread access to generative AI doesn't automatically mean everyday people actually control how it's built and used—especially when power is concentrated in the hands of a few tech "broligarchs."

We face asymmetrical concentration of power, wealth, and information among a small group of largely US-based, increasingly antidemocratic AI deployers – the 'broligarchs' – while AI-related risks are widely dispersed.

This imbalance is anything but democratic – and calls for a collective response. At re:publica 26, Annette Zimmermann will demonstrate how we can find new, creative ways to shape AI together: What might ‘democratic innovations’ look like? How can we rethink decision-making processes that go beyond mere voting or endless deliberation?

Annette Zimmermann’s research interests focus on the political philosophy of AI and AI ethics, democratic theory, social epistemology, and the philosophy of science. During the academic year of 2025/26, she holds the Interim Chair in Political Philosophy at the University of Bayreuth and a Research Fellowship at the Weizenbaum Institute Berlin. Annette Zimmermann is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an Affiliate Professor at the Department of Statistics. Her first book is titled Democratizing AI (forthcoming May 2026). She frequently advises policy-makers and technologists working on contemporary ethical and political issues surrounding AI and other forms of technology.