Harnessing AI for Legislative Process Enhancement in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies
About the Cámara de Diputados de la Nación of Argentina | Written on May, 2023
Introduction
The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the legislative process is a burgeoning field of innovation with significant potential for democratic societies. This essay critically analyses the application of AI in the legislative process of Argentina's Chamber of Deputies. We will delve into the intricacies of the legislative process, explore how AI technologies are being implemented, and examine the potential benefits and challenges of this innovative approach.
The Legislative Process in Argentina
The Legislative Power in Argentina, mandated by the National Constitution, ensures representation as a cornerstone of the democratic system. The journey of a legislative proposal through Congress is complex, with the creation and drafting of bills governed by the regulations of each chamber. This process necessitates multiple stages, including the initial conception, review of drafting rules, and execution of all intended procedures from introduction to eventual publication.
The architecture of legislative technique, involving practical rules applied to the writing, structure, and treatment of proposals, is integral to this process. A bill must be consistent with the rest of the legal framework, accurately reflect the political decision that motivated the law, and be interpretable in the same way by any reader. This demands clear structure and minimal semantic ambiguity, making it an arduous yet crucial endeavour to enhance the rule of law and democratic practice.
The Advent of AI in the Chamber of Deputies
With the implementation of Law 27.275 (2016) concerning public access to information, Argentina joined other nations in harnessing open data and incorporating AI techniques into parliamentary praxis. The intersection with the scientific community and the private sector has been invaluable in this regard, as the transfer of capabilities allows for mutual enrichment and advancement in the state of the art.
The New Technologies Laboratory of the Chamber of Deputies (DipLab) is developing an intelligent data algorithm known as 'Intelligent Parliament.' This algorithm is designed to index legislative documents, enabling quick access to substantial amounts of information. The main objective is to organise and analyse this data to make it more manageable and personalised according to user preferences.
To achieve this, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm for natural language processing is being used. Rather than viewing a document as a combination of words, it is perceived as a mix of topics, each topic implying a distribution of words with different probabilities. This approach captures the co-occurrence of words, thus defining a topic and its proportion within the document.
Future Possibilities and Conclusion
The 'Intelligent Parliament' will launch several applications, each providing different data arrangements and visualisations. For instance, users will be able to track the evolution of topics over time, comparing them, and examining their prevalence in the speeches of the Chamber of Deputies in selected years.
This AI-powered tool has the potential to bring the legislative practice closer to the citizens, offering unprecedented dimensions in the field. It allows for tracking public policies over time, determining what is discussed at different historical moments, and understanding how legislative practice and social demands interplay to signal epochal changes. These applications could serve academic, political, general interest, or journalistic purposes.
The deployment of these AI tools underpins a commitment to transparency and participatory effort, opening avenues of knowledge with other sectors to improve the quality of social and political practices. Thus, the application of AI in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies is not just a technological evolution, but a vital stride towards a more informed, engaged, and democratic society.