Significant progress was made in 2024 in integrating emerging technologies into parliamentary processes. This post highlights among others my most important achievements in this area.
Major research activities
A major milestone was the completion of the digitization of parliamentary questions from the first (A’) parliamentary period (1974-1977), a project presented at the ICDAR 2024 conference with innovative use of advanced data analysis and recognition tools (source). Moreover, togother with a group of excellent scholars and professionals, we deceloped and disseminated the AI Guidelines for Parliaments, contributing to global standards for ethical, inclusive and transparent AI adoption (source). Additionally, qpart from several talks and presentations, public engagement efforts included organizing a discussion on “Is Artificial Intelligence Threatening Democracy?” at Vouli TV (YouTube link) and presenting updates on the Sustainable Development Goals to Members of Parliament during a session of the Permanent Environment Protection Committee of the Hellenic Parliament (source). International collaborations were a significant focus, with contributions to the OECD-SIGMA study on the evolution of Western Balkan parliaments (source) and partnerships with academic institutions and organizations.
Publications
In 2024, I contributed to numerous high-impact publications, including:
- Comparative Analysis of the Relevance and Priority for Artificial Intelligence Tools, Services and Open Questions in the Hellenic, Argentinian and Canadian Parliaments: An article comparing AI integration in Greek, Argentinian and Canadian parliaments (source).
- AI Applications, Concepts, and Considerations for Parliaments: A book chapter with an in-depth exploration of AI’s role in improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in parliamentary processes (source).
- AI-based Solutions for Legislative Drafting in the EU – Summary Report: An e-book publications examining challenges and proposing strategies for AI adoption in law making processes (source).
- Key Considerations of Artificial Intelligence in Parliaments: A policy brief with a global perspective on AI integration challenges and opportunities in legislative institutions (source).
- Digitization of Written Parliamentary Questions from the Historical Archive (1974-1977) of the Hellenic Parliament: A paper with a technical description of the digitization process and its potential for data analysis (source).
- A Large Language Model Agent-Based Legal Assistant for Governance Applications: A paper describing the introduction of generative AI tools for legal and administrative tasks (source).
- Crowdsourcing the Digital Parliament: A journal article with a case study on the Hellenic OCR Team that uses crowdsourcing for participatory and transparent parliamentary research (source).
- Using Artificial Intelligence in Parliament – Initial Results from the Canadian House of Commons: A paper with first findings from the Canadian House of Commons’ AI integration (source).
- Strategic Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Parliamentary Processes: A working paper with a comprehensive analysis of AI’s strategic benefits in legislative workflows (source).
- Guidelines for AI in Parliaments: A book publication presenting 40 structured guidelines for AI adoption by parliaments (source).
- Beyond Standard Parliamentary Work: Side Activities of Modern Representative Institutions: A working paper with an analysis of supplementary activities that enhance parliamentary functions (source).
- Overview of Smart Functionalities in Drafting Legislation in LEOS: A technical report with insights into the LEOS platform’s efficiency and interoperability for integrating AI in law making processes (source).
- Einschätzungen aus der argentinischen Abgeordnetenkammer zum Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz in Parlamenten: A paper in German with insights into the adoption of AI in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies (source).
- Artificial Intelligence and Its Regulation in Representative Institutions: A book chapter with an analysis of parliamentary case studies on AI and a review of regulatory frameworks addressing AI risks and opportunities (source).
- Better Regulation and Its Evolution in the Hellenic Legislative and Parliamentary System: An article containing innovations and practices enhancing regulatory quality (source).
Presentations and lectures
In 2024, I also delivered several presentations at various events and organizations, including:
- The Athens Roundtable on AI and the Rule of Law: Discussed the role of parliaments in regulating AI (Paris, December 2024) (source).
- ECPRD Conference: Explored how research services utilize technology in politically divided climates (Brussels, December 2024) (source).
- An Integration Framework for AI Systems in Parliaments: Delivered at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (online, November 2024) (source).
- Use of AI in Policy Creation and Legislation in Greece: Presented at Medipol University, Istanbul (online, November 2024) (source).
- The Interplay Between Parliamentary Research Services and Artificial Intelligence: Delivered at Parliamentary Research Day, Tirana (November 2024) (source).
- Law as Code: Leitlinien für KI in Parlamenten und kommunalen Organen: Presented at the Research Meets Practice (ReMeP) conference (online, November 2024) (source).
- Guidelines for AI in Parliaments: Presented at ICON-S, Trento (October 2024) (source).
- How Artificial Intelligence Can Support Evidence-Based Law Making: Delivered at the OECD/SIGMA event on the Western Balkans, Rome (October 2024) (source).
- The Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence: Featured at the LegisTech: Artificial Intelligence in Parliaments conference, Washington DC (October 2024) (source).
- The importance of technology, particularly AI, in promoting resilience, public participation and preserving democratic values: Delivered at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (online, September 2024)
- Introduction to the WFD Guidelines for AI in Parliaments: Presented at the Summer School LEX2024, Ravenna (September 2024) (source).
- Parliamentary AI Guidelines: Delivered at IFLA’s “24 Hours of Global IT” online event (August 2024) (source).
- Strategic Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Parliamentary Processes: Delivered at the 16th Wroxton Workshop (July 2024) (source).
- AI and parliaments: Delivered for the lecture series of the Linguistics Laboratory of the Department of Philology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (online, June 2024) (source).
- AI in parliaments: Presented at the International Association of Legislation (IAL) Members’ Meeting (online, June 2024).
- Impact of Generative AI in Parliaments: Delivered at the AI conference of the Congress of Deputies of Chile (June 2024) (source).
- Beyond Standard Parliamentary Work: Side Activities of Modern Representative
Institutions: Delivered at the 3rd Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies, Prague (June 2024) (source). - Parliamentary AI: Delivered at the Kazakhstan Institute of Parliamentarism (May 2024).
- Digital-Ready Policymaking: Presented at a GRNET event (online, February 2024) (source).
2025 outlook
Priority activities in 2025, include:
- 4th Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies, titled: “Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century” organized in collaboration with the Hellenic OCR Team and Széchenyi István University (Call for Papers).
- Efforts for AI guidelines localization that include the translation and dissemination of the AI guidelines for parliaments into multiple languages, including Greek, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
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