How can we ensure that AI infrastructure provides public access, public accountability, and permanent public goods? Brandon Jackson explains.

When it comes to digital infrastructure, communities lack more than just broadband access. Rather, the delivery of effective digital services at the local level has been hamstrung by three primary obstacles: an absence of data, poor community-government relationships, and insufficient digital literacy among key populations. At their core, these failures all have one thing in common: they designed for the community but not with the community. 

Local media and civic institutions must support one another’s mission if they are to serve the community and its informational, multilingual, and multicultural needs. 

Americans are living 21st century lives using 20th century infrastructure. Now is the time to get prepared for the next crisis as well as for the economic and technological changes ahead. Stakeholders have the insights and resources to address these challenges: we must work across sectors and silos, integrate equity and climate into every decision, embrace community input and data, pursue innovative financing mechanisms, and ground infrastructure in the dynamic needs of our citizens. Congress has green-lit the path ahead. Now it’s time to get creative and work together in this historic moment.