Issue 157
AI in Practice
The environment and the decision
Ivan Sverdlick explains how Sustantiva is redesigning workflows around AI, shared knowledge and deliberate points for human judgement, beyond automating individual tasks.
A thread through the archive · 63 essays
AI in Practice
Experiments, applications and lessons from using AI in public and institutional life.
Search within this topicIssue 154
AI in Practice
Astra: a new scale of intelligence and power
A historical account of GPT-6 Astra and an interactive municipal planning experiment, examining what better AI capabilities mean for public explanation and judgement.
Issue 143
AI in Practice
Trying SillyTavern as a space for political debate with AI
A first-person SillyTavern experiment with five synthetic political profiles, exploring its value for preparing questions and its limits as social research.
Issue 142
AI in Practice
Before the shutdown: a conversation and a practical test with Fable 5, the most advanced AI model to date
A historical interview and practical website-building experiment with Claude Fable 5, framed by the model's withdrawal in June 2026.
Issue 141
AI in Practice
AI returns to the desktop: why local models are worth trying
A practical invitation to try local AI models, with historical examples of tools, hardware and the political case for greater technological autonomy.
Issue 136
Government & Public Services
A minister, a Raspberry Pi and Claude: why Singapore’s second brain matters for politics
Singapore's foreign minister and a personal AI memory system: technical competence, institutional learning and the political value of showing the code.
Issue 135
AI in Practice
We test ChatGPT Images 2.0: a comparison with Nano Banana Pro and new uses for government, politics and public administration
An April 2026 comparison of image models through public communication experiments, with the original prompts and generated examples.
Issue 134
Government & Public Services
How councils can lead the transformation of local government through artificial intelligence without leaving anyone behind
Román Robles Valades sets out how municipalities can adopt AI responsibly, connecting staff development, data sovereignty and better public services.
Issue 129
Government & Public Services
MUNICIP-IA: from using AI tools to governing change
Sofía García Morales reports from MUNICIP-IA on practical municipal adoption, institutional judgement, digital sovereignty and the political implications of AI.
Issue 128
AI in Practice
The end of conversational ping-pong: autonomous agents are here, and they will change how we work
Three first-person experiments with autonomous agents: a political comic, a Windows speech analyser and a Stoic quotations app.
Issue 127
Power, Sovereignty & Geopolitics
Who leads AI? Twelve key players in the model race, 2026
A historical guide to twelve AI model developers and deployment players, their products, institutional significance and competing strategic priorities.
Issue 124
Futures, Safety & Human Agency
Silicon Springfield: when The Simpsons drew the future of artificial intelligence
Five Simpsons storylines connect satire with autocorrect, smart homes, machine learning, alignment and technological unemployment.
Issue 118
AI in Practice
The year in AI through estrategIA: interact with all our 2025 content in NotebookLM
An interactive yearbook of estrategIA's 2025 coverage, with a practical explanation of how its NotebookLM collection and multimedia summaries were created.
Issue 116
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
Your brother-in-law, the prawns and AI: a Christmas survival guide for estrategIA readers
A humorous Christmas guide to five familiar arguments about AI, from bubbles and jobs to energy use and disinformation, with a political and governance perspective.
Issue 115
AI in Practice
Instant visual communication: Nano Banana Pro examples for campaigns and public administrations
Ten historical image-generation demonstrations, with full prompts, retained examples and the author's warning to verify generated data.
Issue 113
Learning & Human Capability
Gemini 3 Pro shows that model power is only part of the story: training and how people use it matter too
Gemini 3 Pro's launch results, an unexpected calendar error and a practical electoral-system demo illustrate the importance of informed use.
Issue 112
Government & Public Services
The new role of digital advisers
Javier Battilana Urbieta considers how conversational AI can extend the tradition of advisers who help leaders reflect, decide and act.
Issue 111
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
How to counter the liar’s dividend: procedures for checking and verifying information with AI
Five defensive verification workflows and practical tools for using AI to counter disinformation while preserving human judgement.
Issue 110
AI in Practice
Vibe coding for estrategIA readers: from a prompt to a simple application with Google AI Studio
A November 2025 demonstration of building and refining a press-release-generator prototype through conversation, with the complete visible prompts and outputs.
Issue 109
Learning & Human Capability
Physics in artificial intelligence
Luis Eduardo Paniagua Martín explores physics as a bridge between mathematical ideas, algorithms and hardware, with an illustrated explanation from the original newsletter.
Issue 106
Government & Public Services
Governing with artificial intelligence
Ignacio Martín Granados explores where AI creates public value, the risks of action and inaction, and the conditions for trustworthy government adoption.
Issue 105
Futures, Safety & Human Agency
Five charts to understand two years of AI: adoption, capabilities, costs, investment and public perceptions
A second-anniversary comparison of AI adoption, task capabilities, falling costs, investment and public perceptions, preserving the October 2025 evidence and forecasts.
Issue 101
AI in Practice
Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano banana): a qualitative leap in image editing and generation
Practical tests of Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, from political posters and public spaces to editing photographs and combining visual elements.
Issue 098
AI in Practice
GPT-5: the floor rises sharply, the ceiling barely moves — and why that matters
An August 2025 assessment of GPT-5's launch, reasoning access, rollout problems and practical value for government.
Issue 092
AI in Practice
Artificial intelligence in Cuba's informal currency market
Alejandro Ulloa García explains how elTOQUE uses AI and public online offers to estimate exchange rates in Cuba.
Issue 087
AI in Practice
Google I/O 2025: artificial intelligence at the heart of innovation and the future
Google’s May 2025 announcements, from Gemini and Veo to local AI models, and their implications for creating, searching and communicating.
Issue 086
AI in Practice
Repeating the AI election experiment a year later — with our students: what has changed in twelve months
A repeat of estrategIA’s election experiment with ALEPH students explores human judgement, reasoning models, deep research and new campaign tools.
Issue 084
Government & Public Services
From innovation to action: artificial intelligence serving public administration in Chile
Mauricio Pilleux describes an AI assistance system for Chilean women facing gender-based violence abroad and the incremental approach behind its development.
Issue 080
AI in Practice
Ten uses for ChatGPT's new image-generation system: how easy AI image creation could redraw political communication
Thirty-one preserved images illustrate ten historical GPT-4o experiments in visual political communication, with complete prompts and accessible English text.
Issue 078
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
AI on official accounts: viral play, threat or distortion?
Martín Sosa Dirié examines AI imagery on official political accounts and asks whether viral reach enriches or trivialises public discourse.
Issue 075
AI in Practice
February, the month of AI “deep research”: introducing and testing three major tools
A March 2025 test of OpenAI, Perplexity and xAI research tools on electoral systems and Spanish polling, with complete historical evaluation tables.
Issue 073
AI in Practice
From information to shared knowledge: the process behind every issue of estrategIA
An inside account of estrategIA's sources, AI-assisted writing workflows and editorial production in February 2025.
Issue 067
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
From simulation to strategy: new AI developments that will transform political communication
A guest essay on simulated populations, AI agents and the opportunities and limits of predicting human behaviour for political communication.
Issue 064
Government & Public Services
Where do I begin? A step-by-step guide to adopting AI in your organisation
Pablo Martín Diez outlines five stages of organisational AI adoption, from focused pilots and an internal team to staff training, strategy and communication.
Issue 062
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
Operación Retuit: AI as a shield for Venezuelan journalism
César Batiz recounts how Venezuelan and Colombian journalists used AI avatars and media alliances to report under censorship and protect their colleagues.
Issue 061
AI in Practice
Five good AI tools with Black Friday discounts
The November 2024 archive of estrategIA's Black Friday selection: Pictory, Kling, Mimic PC, Freepik and Poe, with the original offers and disclosures preserved.
Issue 060
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
SocialAI: an ally for political communication
Carlos Guadián explores political role-play with SocialAI through simulated US election messages and debates over Mexico's judicial reform.
Issue 054
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
Generative artificial intelligence in politics: opportunities, challenges and the search for democratic ethics
Javier Naranjo Sanjuan explores generative AI’s political uses, transparency and democratic ethics through an experimental custom GPT for estrategIA.
Issue 053
AI in Practice
estrategIA’s first anniversary: testing ChatGPT’s new voice for political communication
On estrategIA’s first anniversary, Fernando Nieto Lobato tests ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode as a political debate sparring partner.
Issue 052
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
From scepticism to acclaim: AI takes centre stage at ACOP’s Seventh International Congress
Pablo Martín Diez reports on AI, disinformation and the future of political communication at ACOP’s 2024 congress.
Issue 051
Futures, Safety & Human Agency
OpenAI o1: a new frontier in AI “thinking” and problem-solving
A historical account of OpenAI o1, its reasoning capabilities, benchmark results, limitations and possible applications.
Issue 050
Learning & Human Capability
Navigating the future of education: how Institución Educativa ALEPH is trying to advance learning with AI
An account of ALEPH’s experimental AI tutors, the limits of early GPT agents and the challenge of helping students learn rather than outsource their work.
Issue 038
Learning & Human Capability
Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI: an accessible, practical guide to understanding artificial intelligence
A reading of Ethan Mollick's Co-Intelligence, presenting four rules for working with AI and the distinction between centaur and cyborg collaboration.
Issue 037
Futures, Safety & Human Agency
Apple’s new vision: artificial intelligence at the heart of its products
A historical reading of WWDC 2024 and Apple's strategy of integrating AI into everyday devices, Siri and its operating systems.
Issue 036
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
Testing new AI models to compare manifestos and analyse data ahead of the European Parliament elections
Historical tests of Gemini and GPT-4o for manifesto comparison, turnout visualisation and interpreting the European Parliament's composition.
Issue 033
Futures, Safety & Human Agency
Towards ubiquitous AI: the OpenAI and Google developments that will transform the future
A historical account of OpenAI's GPT-4o launch and Google I/O 2024, examining multimodal assistants, search and the prospect of ubiquitous AI.
Issue 030
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
Continuing our experiment in creating and developing an AI-generated political party for the European Parliament elections
A historical test of generative AI for a fictional electoral campaign: objectives, messages, talking points, poster designs and songs.
Issue 029
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
“Elena Vidal”: an AI-generated political profile for the European Parliament elections
A historical experiment creating a fictional European Parliament candidate with GPT-4 and Midjourney, including her profile, SWOT analysis, speech and interview.
Issue 028
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
estrategIA’s “electoral” experiment: generative artificial intelligence as the creator and promoter of a new political party
A historical experiment using generative AI to create the identity, policies, logo and website of a fictional pro-European, Stoic political party.
Issue 027
Futures, Safety & Human Agency
Six months of AI with estrategIA: discoveries, dilemmas and future directions
A six-month retrospective on disinformation, models, European regulation and the AI trends identified for 2024.
Issue 025
Government & Public Services
The AI Act through AI’s eyes: using the most advanced text models—or trying to—to analyse the EU law in full
A March 2024 experiment analysing the full AI Act with language models, preserving seven questions and answers, context-window tests and observed costs.
Issue 024
AI in Practice
Claude 3 versus GPT-4: comparing Anthropic’s new AI with the current leader on political prompts
A historical comparison of Claude 3 Opus and GPT-4 using two political and public-policy prompts, with all four responses preserved in full.
Issue 023
Democracy, Elections & Public Trust
A proof of concept: using generative image AI (Midjourney) to enhance a candidate’s image
A March 2024 educational proof of concept using Midjourney images of Emmanuel Macron to examine political narratives, synthetic imagery and deepfake risks.
Issue 022
Government & Public Services
Challenges and uses of AI in public affairs
Gustavo Fedi examines the distinction between generative and predictive AI, the challenges of measurement and six emerging applications in public affairs.
Issue 020
AI in Practice
Gemini Ultra under scrutiny: exploring the capabilities and problems of Google’s latest AI
A historical first assessment of Gemini Ultra in February 2024, including its political-content restrictions, benchmark claims and image-generation examples.
Issue 019
Learning & Human Capability
AI: our key ally in first-class training
Santiago Comadira describes ALEPH’s use of AI to build an immersive electoral training exercise and shares five lessons for educators.
Issue 017
AI in Practice
AI advances unveiled at CES with particular potential for politics and government
Holograms, real-time interpreting and portable AI devices at CES 2024, considered through their possible uses in politics and public administration.
Issue 016
AI in Practice
Five interesting categories of AI proto-agents already in OpenAI’s new GPT Store
A historical exploration of five types of GPT assistants for politics and government at the launch of OpenAI’s GPT Store.
Issue 012
AI in Practice
Discover 10 AI-related gift ideas for Christmas
The original Christmas 2023 selection of five AI-related books or series and five devices, with historical product descriptions and links.
Issue 009
AI in Practice
Create your own virtual proto-agent: a guide to developing GPTs for any task
A historical November 2023 walkthrough of the GPT Builder, with complete screenshot dialogues for Tweet Master and examples of other customised assistants.
Issue 007
AI in Practice
AI agents: a new way of interacting with technology
Bill Gates’s vision of personal AI agents prompts an exploration of hypothetical applications in public services, participation, policy analysis and scrutiny.
Issue 005
Government & Public Services
AI innovations transforming public safety and the environment: Time's chosen inventions of 2023
Three inventions selected by Time in 2023 show how AI can support wildfire detection, wildlife protection and urban drone security.
Issue 003
AI in Practice
AI's new frontier: multimodality and its applications in politics — GPT-4 V(ision)
Three historical GPT-4 Vision experiments from October 2023: election posters, a campaign website and the appearance of a fictional candidate.