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In many countries, public administrations increasingly use Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to decide on public service provisions among their citizens. Citizen profiles are assessed for their worthiness to receive public services, scoring using value criteria to distinguish between legal /fraudulent recipients, deserving/non-deserving, or needy/non-needy. Although types and degrees of AI implementation vary between countries, delegating decisions about the distribution of scarce resources based on value judgements to machines leads everywhere to important questions of ethics, justice, quality, responsibility, accountability, and transparency of welfare decisions. However, perceptions, attitudes and acceptance of AI use in service provision vary between countries due to different norms and values in-use, different technology status, economic models, civil society sentiments, and legislative, executive and judicial characteristics. The objective of the AI FORA project is to understand the status quo and the future options of AI-based social assessment in public service provisions in order to create improved AI technology for social welfare systems. Based on data from six empirical country case studies in Germany, Estonia, Spain, India, China and the USA, experimental scenario simulations will guide participatory co-design of societal stakeholders in a Better-AI Lab built by the AI FORA partnership between computer science and the social sciences.