Public Voices in AI

CONNECTED BY DATA were commissioned by Public Voices in AI to facilitate a People’s Advisory Panel supporting their year long project, following our success with the People’s Panel on AI.

The Responsible AI UK programme on Public Voices in AI, coordinated by the Digital Good Network, was a year long programme (April 2024 - March 2025) working to “ensure that public voices are front and centre in artificial intelligence research, development and policy.”. The project involved a number of tracks, including:

• Evidence review;
• Survey research;
• Resource production;
• Synthesis products

The PVAI People’s Advisory Panel has been made up of six members of the public from across the United Kingdom, recruited on the basis of varied past experience of public engagement on AI. It was created to provide advisory input to the Public Voices in AI research programme, offering input to work-package leads through regular facilitated Zoom meetings.

The six members of the panel: Margaret, Sharif, Samer, Farheen, Cameron and Adam drew on their lived experience in different communities across the UK to help PVAI reflect on the who, why and how of public involvement, and how PVAI research and research outputs might be received in different settings.

The Panel’s journey

• June 2024 - Panel recruitment - Invited applications from people with experience of past public engagement on AI. Six members selected based on geographic and demographic diversity.
• July 2024 - Meeting 1: Introductions and AI use-cases - Getting to know the panel, and the PVAI work packages, and discussing AI use-cases to be used in survey research.
• August 2024 - Meeting 2: Focus on Open Call Projects - Reflecting on the communities covered and missed in proposed qualitative research.
• October 2024 - Meeting 3: Frameworks, Evidence Review and Audiences to Engage - Using AI-generated personas to explore the different actors in the AI Lifecycle who need to hear public voice.
• November 2024 - Meeting 4: Digital Centre of Government - Special session with DSIT officials to provide panel input on early design ideas from the Digital Centre of Government team.
• December 2024 - Meeting 5: Experiences of Participation - Panel input to work package 4 on resources to support public engagement.
• February 2025 - Meeting 6: Work package review - Reviewing work package outputs and how panel input shaped them. Looking at evidence review webtoons and panel messages for the future.
• March 2025 - Parliament & Sheffield events - Panel members joining dissemination activities in London and Sheffield.

For more information

Tim has been the project lead for this commission, with delivery led by our associate Anna.

A summary leaflet about the Panel is available for download.