Challenges to Grassroots Organization Engagement with AI Policy
For grassroots organizations and marginalized communities, this work highlights practical barriers to participating in AI policy and offers actionable recommendations, though it is an incremental case study rather than a novel framework.
The paper presents a case study of an organization's efforts to apply participatory design principles to AI policymaking in the US, focusing on queer communities, and identifies challenges and recommendations for engaging marginalized groups in policy processes.
Public policies are being developed around the world to address privacy, economic, intellectual property, energy, and other risks that AI technologies pose. Involvement from the general public is essential to governance as an accountability and alignment mechanism. However, participating in and impacting policymaking can be challenging for sections of the public that lack extensive networks, lobbying capabilities, and other forms of power. This challenge is especially acute for marginalized communities. In this paper, we present a case study of our organization's efforts to bring participatory design (PD) principles to AI policymaking in the US. We describe our engagements with several US policy bodies, and our participatory development of AI policy for queer people. We highlight challenges with PD practice with marginalized communities, and offer suggestions to alleviate them. We conclude with actionable recommendations for policymakers and other organizers working in marginalized communities.