A Durham-based nonprofit is transforming how the public accesses local government meetings.

Residents can find on SeeGov.org easily digestible summaries of Durham City Council, Board of Education and County Commission meetings. The notes, generated by AI, are meant to highlight the most important moments of the meetings.

Footage from municipal meetings that Durham City uploads to YouTube are fed into an AI tool that generates the highlights which can then be edited by See Gov staff.

“There’s a great opportunity in Durham to expand participation and to see if the See Gov platform would help people in better knowing their local government and feel confident to participate in it,” See Gov Executive Director and Founder Alex Rosen said.

Platform Uses

Rosen said he hopes See Gov will serve as a catalyst for greater civic participation and maybe even help expand tools for local journalism.

Rosen launched the nonprofit in September 2023 with support from a donor based in Springfield, IL – the platform’s other operating location.

He said Durham offers a unique environment due to high municipal engagement, yet local election turnout remains low in non-federal election years.

“There’s incredibly low turnout in our municipal elections, and it really bothered me that in our mayor’s election for the primary in 2023 there was only 12% turnout,” Rosen said.

Rosen recognized that some people feel disconnected from local candidates and their policy positions, which can discourage them from voting in local elections.

By breaking down lengthy meetings into brief, impactful recaps, Rosen said the platform expands access to the local political landscape.

“That’s what makes it accessible to people who do not have time to watch five hours, but might have 10 minutes,” Rosen said.

Rosen sees a growing gap in local news coverage, especially when it comes to routine government meetings that often go unreported unless something major happens. This is particularly true in communities that don’t have a fully staffed newsroom in the community.

That’s where See Gov steps in to fill the gap.

“There’s not enough media to cover these meetings all the time. There used to be more, and now they’re only going to get assigned the story if there’s something very dramatic,” Rosen said.

Wes Platt serves as the editor of Southpoint Access, a hyperlocal newspaper in Durham. Before joining See Gov as a creator in early April, he used the platform to inform his reporting and embed video clips in his articles.

Southpoint Access primarily focuses on public schools, development, neighborhood issues and business news – making See Gov’s coverage of various government meetings a valuable resource for Platt’s reporting.

“It’s an AI tool that is able to capture those moments, give me a summary of what happened, and let me go in and pick the moments that I need to accentuate and illustrate the story,” he said. “I think it’s fantastic to have, so I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.”

AI Implications

Jeff Schneider serves as the AI expert at See Gov. The primary AI technologies used at See Gov include large language models (LLMs) for primary thinking, speech recognition and text-to-speech for summaries and narration

“AI is changing extremely fast,” he said. “I’m trying to look three months, six months, 12 months ahead.”

He believes the future of nonprofit journalism will depend on AI to extend the reach of small teams and solo reporters.

“In a successful nonprofit news center, you’re going to need to amplify a reporter’s capabilities,” Schneider said. “AI is the new tool that lets them have superpowers.”

Rosen said his largest expense currently is AI technology, but he said this cost continues to decrease as technology improves. While other efforts to raise money may be utilized in the future, See Gov is focused for now on keeping costs low.

“AI is the largest piece, and that keeps going down,” Rosen said.

Rosen acknowledges that selecting highlights from hours-long meetings inevitably introduces some editorial bias, as different creators may prioritize different policies.

However, he views this as a chance for growth and broader perspective.

“I would be very interested in people with different points of view, creating different videos of the same meeting and choosing different things to highlight,” Rosen said.

Still, the platform’s use of AI brings up ongoing concerns about accuracy. One key issue is the potential for AI-generated summaries or captions to “hallucinate” – a term used to describe instances where the technology produces misleading or incorrect information.

To address this, Rosen emphasizes the importance of creator oversight, ensuring that contributors carefully review and fact-check captions and video highlights before publishing.

He said maintaining public trust depends on transparency and accountability at every step of the content creation process.

“What you need to worry about is making sure that the AI is not hallucinating in the text and telling you things that aren’t true,” Platt said.

Plans for Growth

Rosen said one of See Gov’s key goals is to refine how meeting clips are packaged – breaking them into even shorter, more engaging segments designed for platforms like TikTok, Instagram and even Facebook.

“That’s a big area for improvement that’ll be happening over the next month or two to make those more interesting, both to people and to the algorithms that get them into people’s feed,” Rosen said.

He also hopes to make the platform more proactive – giving residents context before meetings happen so they can participate more fully.

“We will need to work more on helping people understand what will soon be coming up at the meetings and help them get the background information they might need to participate in the process,” Rosen said.

So far, Rosen said growth trends are promising.

While the platform is still in its early stages, the signs of growing interest suggest that audiences want more accessible local government coverage.

“We’re seeing a scaling of viewership, so key metrics are moving in the right direction. Hopefully that will turn into more support,” Rosen said.

Overall, Platt agreed that See Gov fills a critical gap in local news coverage, particularly for small, hyperlocal outlets like his that often lack the staff or time to cover lengthy public meetings.

For solo journalists or volunteer-run newsrooms, tools like See Gov make it possible to report on civic issues that might otherwise be overlooked.

“I think they will make it a lot easier for us as journalists, especially on the local level, to be able to bring those to people in a better story,” Platt said.

And as Schneider sees it, AI isn’t just a temporary tool – it’s becoming core to how news is both created and consumed.

“The production and consumption side of news is fundamentally thinking of artificial intelligence. You either get in the game or you’re going to be lost,” Schneider said.