Power to the People? Opportunities and Challenges for Participatory AI

"This paper discusses participatory approaches within historical contexts and explores participatory methods and practices in the AI and ML pipeline by presenting three case studies demonstrating participatory AI.

While participation has the potential to benefit and empower technology it also carries risks, such as cooptation and confusion with other activities. This paper discusses these limitations and concerns and emphasises the need for a contextual and nuanced understanding of participatory AI/ML, and considers who should be the primary beneficiaries of participatory activities, to realise the benefits and opportunities that participation can acheive. "