Whose Truth? Pluralistic Geo-Alignment for (Agentic) AI

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Janowicz, Krzysztof, Liu, Zilong, Mai, Gengchen, Wang, Zhangyu, Majic, Ivan, Fortacz, Alexandra, McKenzie, Grant, Gao, Song
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Janowicz, Krzysztof
Liu, Zilong
Mai, Gengchen
Wang, Zhangyu
Majic, Ivan
Fortacz, Alexandra
McKenzie, Grant
Gao, Song
author_facet Janowicz, Krzysztof
Liu, Zilong
Mai, Gengchen
Wang, Zhangyu
Majic, Ivan
Fortacz, Alexandra
McKenzie, Grant
Gao, Song
contents AI (super) alignment describes the challenge of ensuring (future) AI systems behave in accordance with societal norms and goals. While a quickly evolving literature is addressing biases and inequalities, the geographic variability of alignment remains underexplored. Simply put, what is considered appropriate, truthful, or legal can differ widely across regions due to cultural norms, political realities, and legislation. Alignment measures applied to AI/ML workflows can sometimes produce outcomes that diverge from statistical realities, such as text-to-image models depicting balanced gender ratios in company leadership despite existing imbalances. Crucially, some model outputs are globally acceptable, while others, e.g., questions about Kashmir, depend on knowing the user's location and their context. This geographic sensitivity is not new. For instance, Google Maps renders Kashmir's borders differently based on user location. What is new is the unprecedented scale and automation with which AI now mediates knowledge, expresses opinions, and represents geographic reality to millions of users worldwide, often with little transparency about how context is managed. As we approach Agentic AI, the need for spatio-temporally aware alignment, rather than one-size-fits-all approaches, is increasingly urgent. This paper reviews key geographic research problems, suggests topics for future work, and outlines methods for assessing alignment sensitivity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_05432
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Whose Truth? Pluralistic Geo-Alignment for (Agentic) AI
Janowicz, Krzysztof
Liu, Zilong
Mai, Gengchen
Wang, Zhangyu
Majic, Ivan
Fortacz, Alexandra
McKenzie, Grant
Gao, Song
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
AI (super) alignment describes the challenge of ensuring (future) AI systems behave in accordance with societal norms and goals. While a quickly evolving literature is addressing biases and inequalities, the geographic variability of alignment remains underexplored. Simply put, what is considered appropriate, truthful, or legal can differ widely across regions due to cultural norms, political realities, and legislation. Alignment measures applied to AI/ML workflows can sometimes produce outcomes that diverge from statistical realities, such as text-to-image models depicting balanced gender ratios in company leadership despite existing imbalances. Crucially, some model outputs are globally acceptable, while others, e.g., questions about Kashmir, depend on knowing the user's location and their context. This geographic sensitivity is not new. For instance, Google Maps renders Kashmir's borders differently based on user location. What is new is the unprecedented scale and automation with which AI now mediates knowledge, expresses opinions, and represents geographic reality to millions of users worldwide, often with little transparency about how context is managed. As we approach Agentic AI, the need for spatio-temporally aware alignment, rather than one-size-fits-all approaches, is increasingly urgent. This paper reviews key geographic research problems, suggests topics for future work, and outlines methods for assessing alignment sensitivity.
title Whose Truth? Pluralistic Geo-Alignment for (Agentic) AI
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05432