In its simplest form, participatory AI means involving a diverse range of stakeholders in building AI systems. This might be members of the public, subject experts or the intended end-users of the AI tool. Participation is particularly important when it comes to using AI for high stakes (and high reward) decisions like climate adaptation, crisis response or health and social care.
Participatory AI comes in many shapes and sizes. People can input at different stages of the AI development pipeline, from data collection to risk assessments and safety testing. By drawing on the experiences, preferences and grounded expertise of diverse groups we can start to leverage collective intelligence, building more trustworthy AI systems that work in the public interest.
We want AI tools to be better than they currently are – more accurate, fair and trustworthy, as well as focusing on applications that advance the public good. People from different backgrounds should benefit from AI, whether they’re crisis-affected communities from Nepal or doctors from the NHS. To …