Related papers: Emerging Practices in Participatory AI Design in P…
Data-driven algorithmic and AI systems are increasingly being deployed to automate or augment decision processes across a wide range of public service settings. Yet community members are often unaware of the presence, operation, and impacts…
The widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in the public and private sectors has resulted in them significantly impacting the lives of people in new and unexpected ways. In this context, it becomes important to…
In recent years, discussions of responsible AI practices have seen growing support for "participatory AI" approaches, intended to involve members of the public in the design and development of AI systems. Prior research has identified a…
Community engagement processes form a critical foundation of democratic governance, yet frequently struggle with resource constraints, sensemaking challenges, and barriers to inclusive participation. These processes rely on constructive…
As public sector agencies rapidly introduce new AI tools in high-stakes domains like social services, it becomes critical to understand how decisions to adopt these tools are made in practice. We borrow from the anthropological practice to…
This research examines the role of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing citizen engagement in participatory budgeting. In response to challenges like declining civic participation and increased societal polarization, the…
With there being many technical and ethical issues with artificial intelligence (AI) that involve marginalized communities, there is a growing interest for design methods used with marginalized people that may be transferable to the design…
There is a growing consensus in HCI and AI research that the design of AI systems needs to engage and empower stakeholders who will be affected by AI. However, the manner in which stakeholders should participate in AI design is unclear.…
This article surveys the use of algorithmic systems to support decision-making in the public sector. Governments adopt, procure, and use algorithmic systems to support their functions within several contexts -- including criminal justice,…
Despite the growing consensus that stakeholders affected by AI systems should participate in their design, enormous variation and implicit disagreements exist among current approaches. For researchers and practitioners who are interested in…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to analyze large amounts of data in various practices, such as object recognition. We are specifically interested in using AI-powered systems to engage local communities in developing plans…
The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, with their profound societal impacts, raise critical challenges for governance. Historically, technological innovations have been governed by concentrated expertise…
Participatory design initiatives, especially within the realm of digital civics, are often integrated and co-developed with the very citizens and communities they intend to assist. Digital civics research aims to create positive social…
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence in public governance has generated strong optimism about faster processes, smarter decisions, and more modern administrative systems. Yet despite this enthusiasm, we still know surprisingly…
This workshop paper examines challenges in designing agentic AI systems from a citizen-centric perspective. Drawing on three participatory workshops conducted in 2025 with members of the general public and cross-sector stakeholders, we…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds promise as a technology that can be used to improve government and economic policy-making. This paper proposes a new research agenda towards this end by introducing Social Environment Design, a general…
A remarkable time of human promise has been ushered in by the convergence of the ever-expanding availability of big data, the soaring speed and stretch of cloud computing platforms, and the advancement of increasingly sophisticated machine…
Most AI tools adopted by governments are not developed internally, but instead are acquired from third-party vendors in a process called public procurement. In this paper, we conduct the first empirical study of how United States cities'…
This paper forms the second of a two-part series on the value of a participatory approach to AI development and deployment. The first paper had crafted a principled, as well as pragmatic, justification for deploying participatory methods in…
Public participation has become increasingly important in collaborative urban design; yet, existing processes often face challenges in achieving efficient and scalable citizen engagement. To address this gap, this study explores how large…