People and Participation

Pathways to powerful community voice in the governance of data and AI

How can the use of data and AI be aligned with public interest, and reflect the needs of different communities? Public participation involves creating routes to engage, consult and share power with those affected by data and AI decisions.

We’ve been exploring how different public participation practices can bring more voices to the table, and lead to real change in how organisations do data. Through case study research, project evaluation, design labs and hands-on practice we’ve been looking at participatory data governance from the grassroots to the global.

In this topic collection you will find projects and resources that reflect this work.

If you would like to talk more about how this could apply in your context, whether you are from a community affected by data and AI, or thinking about your organisations’ latest technology project, we would love to hear from you.

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This report explores how global citizen deliberation, particularly drawing on the concept of a global citizens’ assembly, could and should shape the future of artificial intelligence. Drawing on an extended design lab of in-depth interviews and workshops that took place in mid-2024, it presents a series of options that illustrate a variety of opportunities to bring the voices of those affected by AI development and deployment into decision-making spaces, through processes that can deliver informed and inclusive dialogue.

The landscape of AI governance is rapidly evolving. There are open questions at many levels, from setting shared values and visions to guide AI development, to designing specific governance mechanisms or safety standards, and shaping the models and rules for individual and localized applications. There is growing consensus that these questions cannot be answered by the technology industry or individual governments alone. Global publics must be meaningfully involved.

The concept of a global citizens’ assembly is a powerful one: inviting individuals from across the globe to join in processes where they have access to expert insights, opportunities to learn, and facilitated space to deliberate together, bringing diverse perspectives and experiences to bear on questions of global importance. In this report we address how established and emerging sites of global AI development and governance can integrate citizen deliberation, setting out five template options: deliberative review of AI summits and scientific reports; an independent global assembly on AI; a series of distributed dialogues organized across the globe; a technology-enabled collective intelligence process; and commissioning of AI topics in other deliberative processes.

We present the strengths and weaknesses of these options, and outline additional design considerations they give rise to around recruitment, governance, agenda-setting, transnational dialogue and aggregation of findings, and the use of AI as a delivery tool. In doing so, we aim to support a critical assessment of emerging and future proposals for public participation on AI, both at the global and local level.

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Our observatory of participatory data governance practice collects together examples of projects and methods for giving individuals and communities a voice in data governance decision making.

Access the observatory here.

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In 2022, Justice Lab, a special initiative of The Legal Education Foundation commissioned Ipsos UK to carry out public attitudes research and a public deliberation exercise about the commercial use of data in court records, and particularly bulk access to court judgments. This was intended to inform the work of the Shadow Senior Data Governance Panel and the governance of data made available through a new Find Case Law service, managed by The National Archives, providing access to court judgments.

This evaluation examines the effectiveness of this project, to understand how to fill gaps in existing research and identify lessons to be learned for similar exercises in the future. We carried out a review of the project reports and documentation, 10 semi-structured interviews with a range of stakeholders, and desk research on other public dialogue and deliberation exercises and recognised best practices.

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Catalysing Community Campaigns

To protect and build data rights in the UK

Data and AI are changing our world… community led campaigns can reshape how.

We are running a community data campaigns cohort with five wonderful groups. Together we will be exploring through monthly shared learning sessions, access to 1-to-1 advice, and bespoke expert input ways to advance community led campaigns on data.

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Gloucestershire Data Day

Creating place-based community conversations around data

We worked with Create Gloucestershire, Active Gloucestershire and Barnwood Trust to organise a one-day county-based conference exploring how data can work better for local communities.

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Governance Game

Exploring participatory data governance through games

We believe effective data governance should be: collective, democratic, participatory, deliberative and powerful.

But what should organisations collecting, using or stewarding data, and the communities that data affects, do in order to achieve this? And how can we show that the often dry topic of data governance is something that demands creative and critical engagement?

We’ve been running a multi-stage design lab to explore the creation of a serious game (or games) that can help individuals and organisations to think about planning, running and evaluating collective and participatory data governance activities.

You can find the working draft of the game here.

Over the coming months we’re looking for opportunities to iterate on this resource further, and developing resources to support its use in organisational and workshop settings.

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People's Panel on AI

Public deliberation around the AI Safety Summit and Fringe

The People’s Panel on AI brought together representative members of the public to attend, observe and discuss key events at the AI Fringe, which was held alongside the UK Government’s AI Safety Summit at the beginning of November 2023.

Through a deliberative process facilitated by Hopkins Van Mil the People’s Panel on AI produced a public report giving their verdict on AI and their recommendations to government, industry, civil society and academia for further action.

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Options for a Global Citizens Assembly on AI

A policy and practice design lab

The UN High Level Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence is calling for new institutional arrangements to support the governance of AI that can deliver against the principle that AI should be governed “for all, by all”.

In parallel, the Coalition for a Global Citizens Assembly have launched plans for a permanent Global Citizens’ Assembly, to address humanity’s greatest challenges.

How could a Global Citizens Assembly on AI work? That’s the question we’ve explored, producing an options paper launched alongside the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024.

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CONNECTED BY DATA have been commissioned by Public Voices in AI to facilitate a People’s Advisory Panel supporting their year long project.

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January 30th (Online) / February 8th (Paris) 2025

An independent symposium taking place online and person organised to coincide with the Paris AI Action Summit (10th - 11th Feb 2025) as a space to present research and case studies on the state of the art in participatory development and governance of AI, and to build stronger connections across the field.

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Join us at Gloucestershire’s 2nd data day. (#GlosDataDay)

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On Wednesday 11 December 2024 at 2pm we will hold the third meeting of a community of practice – an online workshop – as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.

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On Thursday 3 October 2024 we held the second meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.

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We will be sharing outputs from our design lab on options for a global citizens assembly on AI at TechSalon New York, ahead of the Civil Society Days of the UN Summit of the Future.

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How can community-led campaigns transform the way data is collected, managed, shared and used?

On 20 June 2024 we brought together a number of different community campaigns, along with our Community Data Campaigns Cohort to work through a series of prototype practical activities designed to accelerate community campaigning on data, helping to shape campaigning strategies, while contributing to shared resources that can support future campaigning.

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Tim spoke alongside partners from the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data on May 29, 9-10am EST for a virtual session on participatory data governance.

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As part of our design lab scoping options for a Global Citizens’ Assembly on AI (GCA on AI), Tim attended the launch of the findings from the Belgian Citizens Panel on AI at the Residence Palace in Brussels.

The Belgian Citizens Panel was composed of 60 randomly selected citizens invited to take part in three weekends of learning and deliberation in the first part of 2024 on question around the evolution of artificial intelligence in Europe. The Panel was organized as part of the Belgian presidency of the European Union, and was the first time a citizens assembly has been organized in this context.

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The People’s Panel on AI is bringing together 12 diverse members of the public to attend, observe and discuss Fringe events. The Panel presented reflections and recommendations from the week at 13:30 UK time on Friday 3rd November.

After engaging with the AI Fringe, looking at the outcomes of the AI Safety Summit, and talking to experts about their hopes and fears for AI, what priorities did members of the public have for the future governance of AI?

Read the Panel’s Recommendations here.

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As part of our work on the Community Campaigns on Data: Campaigners Toolkit we have identified a series of case studies that provide an insight into how data is a key component of campaigns.

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Do you collect, use or share data?

We can help you build trust with your customers, clients or citizens

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Do you want data to be used in your community’s interests?

We can help you organise to ensure that data benefits your community

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