Public opinion in Taiwan over proposed regulations for online liquor sales had already been deadlocked for six years when, last year, the government tried a new approach. Instead of relying on traditional surveys to map public opinion, officials employed a new, interactive survey tool called Pol.is.
In Pol.is surveys, users see a series of statements about an issue and are asked to agree, disagree, or pass. Users can add relevant statements of their own to the survey for others to vote on, but unlike the comment forums on social media sites, they can’t reply to statements.
Pol.is uses artificial intelligence to analyze the votes and the user-added statements in real time, uncovering clusters—what Pol.is founder Colin Megill calls “opinion groups”—and identifying areas of overlap and points of consensus.
Promising as Pol.is may sound, it might need more testing: Technology Review noted the...