PRESS RELEASE: AI and Democracy: TITAN's Policy Brief Calls For a New Standard in Trustworthy Technology

Brussels, 6 October 2025 -  The EU-funded TITAN Project has released its final Policy Brief,

sending a strong message to policymakers, developers, and citizens: AI will shape the future of democracy, but only if we get ethics, law, and participation right.

After three years of designing, developing and testing an AI conversational agent designed to fight disinformation, TITAN’s research shows that current frameworks are falling short.

Ethical and Legal Impact Assessments (ELIAs) are too fragmented, too technical, and often disconnected from real users. At the same time, citizens, those most affected by AI systems, are still rarely included in how these technologies are built and governed.

The Policy Brief doesn’t just diagnose problems, it offers a blueprint for action:

• Set a global standard: Harmonize ELIA frameworks to end fragmentation.

• Bridge the silos: Appoint facilitators to connect lawyers, ethicists, and engineers.

• Build skills: Offer cross-disciplinary training for AI practitioners.

• Put citizens at the table: Make participation mandatory in AI design.

• Keep assessments alive: Treat ELIAs as ongoing processes, not one-off checklists.

“Complexity should never be an excuse to leave citizens out of AI governance,” said co-author  Ana Fernández, researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). “If we want AI to strengthen democracy rather than undermine it, ethics and law must be translated into real, actionable steps.

The Policy Brief is now available on Zenodo, offering open access to its full set of findings and recommendations for building more trustworthy technology, with transparent, and democratic AI systems.

Read the Policy Brief here: https://zenodo.org/records/17285774

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Notes to the Editor

The TITAN Project is an EU-funded initiative developing AI-driven tools and participatory approaches to strengthen resilience against online disinformation. By combining ethical AI design, critical thinking training, and citizen co-creation, TITAN advances trustworthy digital technologies that protect democratic values.

TITAN has received funding from the EU Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.101070658, and by UK Research and innovation under the UK governments Horizon funding guarantee grant numbers 10040483 and 10055990.

www.titanthinking.eu