Kentucky Town Leverages AI to Bridge Divides

In a landmark civic pilot, Warren County in Bowling Green, Kentucky, turned a conventional town hall into an AI-enabled forum. Over 33 days, nearly 8,000 residents contributed more than a million interactions, proposing 4,000 unique ideas for their city’s next 25 years. Officials then harnessed Google’s Sensemaker to distill community input into actionable, consensus-driven policies.

The Bowling Green Experiment

County officials partnered with a local strategy firm to launch a website in February using Pol.is, an open-source polling platform. Over 33 days, participants submitted anonymous ideas and voted on peers’ suggestions. The result: 8,000 unique voices, over a million interactions, and 4,000 distinct proposals covering everything from museums to green spaces.

Warren County Judge Executive Doug Gorman hailed the effort as “the largest town hall in America,” contrasting it with typical in-person gatherings that draw only a few dozen attendees.

• Increase local healthcare specialist access to reduce travel to Nashville.
• Repurpose vacant retail spaces for community use.
• Expand pedestrian infrastructure for safer streets.
• Develop new green spaces and parks.
• Add more restaurants to underserved areas.

AI-Powered Consensus Building

Sensemaker, a Google Jigsaw AI tool, parsed the massive dataset. It identified 2,370 ideas with at least 80% agreement, grouping them into overarching themes. The anonymity fostered cross-party consensus, stripping away political labels and revealing common ground.

The survey’s multilingual support and online format reached populations often missing from town halls, like shift workers, immigrants, and the politically disengaged. A Jigsaw study noted the AI-driven process saved about 28 workdays in data analysis.

Addressing Future Challenges

Despite its success, the experiment raises questions about data privacy and algorithmic bias. While no personal data was collected, broader deployments must ensure robust safeguards against breaches and bias in AI models.

This pilot underscores AI’s potential to revolutionize civic engagement by uniting diverse viewpoints into shared goals. As municipalities and organizations explore similar initiatives, strategic guidance on data governance and transparent AI workflows will be critical.