Amid dramatic power asymmetries between those who deploy technologies, like technology companies and governments, and the people those technologies affect, there is an increasing call for “public participation” — that is, for the people who are most affected by technology’s design to guide a system’s creation and governance themselves. Yet their participation does not guarantee better results: there is a risk that public input will be ignored, misused, or used as a permission structure to justify bad outcomes.
Our first task is to map the state of the field: What methods have arisen in response to this call for public participation in AI? Next, through events and network-building, we must forge a community of practice to better surface critiques and lessons learned. Finally, we hope to apply and amplify models for participation and public engagement that best shift power.
Participatory Methods Series
This series, organized by Meg Young and Iretiolu Akinrinade, brought together participatory methods researchers to share experience-based case studies of participatory approaches to the research and governance of technology and AI.
January 25, 2024 | The Participatory Turn in AI Design: Theoretical Foundations and the Current State of Practice
Feb 29, 2024 | Lessons from the Field: Participatory AI Design with Two Vastly Different Communities
March 28, 2024 | Community Engagement Studios Methodology
April 4, 2024 | Queer in AI: A Case Study in Community-Led Participatory AI
April 25, 2024 | Participatory AI for Humanitarian Innovation, NESTA Centre for Collective Intelligence
June 20, 2024 | An Uncommon Task: Participatory Design in Legal AI.
June 27, 2024 | Bridging the Gap: Building Trust Between Researchers and Participants Collecting Mental Health Data
August 22, 2024 | Grounded in Reality: Leveraging Lived Experience & Expertise to Inform Equity Based Evaluations
September 12, 2024 | Participation Seminar Series Closing Session
Credits
Notation: Omer Bilgen
Participatory Methods Series Speakers: Fernando Delgado, Michael Madaio, Stephen Yang, Qian Yang, Hong Shen, Sharvani Jha, Willie Agnew, Arjun Subramonian, Sarah Ann Mathew, Aleksandra Berditchevskaia, Saurav Poudel, Megan Doerr, Jamila Smith-Loud
