Queer In AI : A Case Study in Community-Led Participatory AI

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2303.16972
• Publication Date: 2023-06-12
• Authors: Organizers Of Que...; Anaelia Ovalle; Arjun Subramonian; Ashwin Singh; Claas Voelcker; Danica J. Sutherland; Davide Locatelli; Eva Breznik; Filip Klubicka; Hang Yuan; Hetvi J; Huan Zhang; Jaidev Shriram; Kruno Lehman; Luca Soldaini; Maarten Sap; Marc Peter Deisen...; Maria Leonor Pacheco; Maria Ryskina; Martin Mundt; Milind Agarwal; Nyx Mclean; Pan Xu; A Pranav; Raj Korpan; Ruchira Ray; Sarah Mathew; Sarthak Arora; St John; Tanvi Anand; Vishakha Agrawal; William Agnew; Yanan Long; Zijie J. Wang; Zeerak Talat; Avijit Ghosh; Nathaniel Dennler; Michael Noseworthy; Sharvani Jha; Emi Baylor; Aditya Joshi; Natalia Y. Bilenko; Andrew Mcnamara; Raphael Gontijo-L...; Alex Markham; Evyn Dong; Jackie Kay; Manu Saraswat; Nikhil Vytla; Luke Stark
• Keywords: ta113; FOS: Computer and information sciences; Artificial intelligence; queer people; Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence; ethics washing; 16. Peace & justice; Social and Behavioral Sciences; socio technical systems; Computer Science - Computers and Society; Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); 5. Gender equality; Computers and Society (cs.CY); healthcare discrimination; Computer Engineering; 10. No inequality; discrimination

We present Queer in AI as a case study for community-led participatory design in AI. We examine how participatory design and intersectional tenets started and shaped this community's programs over the years. We discuss different challenges that emerged in the process, look at ways this organization has fallen short of operationalizing participatory and intersectional principles, and then assess the organization's impact. Queer in AI provides important lessons and insights for practitioners and theorists of participatory methods broadly through its rejection of hierarchy in favor of decentralization, success at building aid and programs by and for the queer community, and effort to change actors and institutions outside of the queer community. Finally, we theorize how communities like Queer in AI contribute to the participatory design in AI more broadly by fostering cultures of participation in AI, welcoming and empowering marginalized participants, critiquing poor or exploitative participatory practices, and bringing participation to institutions outside of individual research projects. Queer in AI's work serves as a case study of grassroots activism and participatory methods within AI, demonstrating the potential of community-led participatory methods and intersectional praxis, while also providing challenges, case studies, and nuanced insights to researchers developing and using participatory methods.<br/>To appear at FAccT 2023<br/>