Reconfiguring Participatory Design to Resist AI Realism
This addresses a conceptual problem for designers and policymakers by offering a critical framework to challenge dominant AI narratives, though it is incremental in applying existing participatory design principles.
The paper tackles the problem of AI Realism, the belief in AI's inevitability, by proposing that participatory design can resist it through democratic engagement and highlighting human labor, aiming to open alternative futures centered on human values.
The growing trend of artificial intelligence (AI) as a solution to social and technical problems reinforces AI Realism -- the belief that AI is an inevitable and natural order. In response, this paper argues that participatory design (PD), with its focus on democratic values and processes, can play a role in questioning and resisting AI Realism. I examine three concerning aspects of AI Realism: the facade of democratization that lacks true empowerment, demands for human adaptability in contrast to AI systems' inflexibility, and the obfuscation of essential human labor enabling the AI system. I propose resisting AI Realism by reconfiguring PD to continue engaging with value-centered visions, increasing its exploration of non-AI alternatives, and making the essential human labor underpinning AI systems visible. I position PD as a means to generate friction against AI Realism and open space for alternative futures centered on human needs and values.