AI From the Margins (AIM): Rethinking Participatory AI Design Through the Lived Experience of Minoritized Communities

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Portegies, Tijs, Willems, Laureanne, Harbers, Maaike, Sileno, Giovanni, van Dierendonck, Roland, Tasnim, Mayesha, Willemsen, Lotte, Ghebreab, Sennay
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Portegies, Tijs
Willems, Laureanne
Harbers, Maaike
Sileno, Giovanni
van Dierendonck, Roland
Tasnim, Mayesha
Willemsen, Lotte
Ghebreab, Sennay
author_facet Portegies, Tijs
Willems, Laureanne
Harbers, Maaike
Sileno, Giovanni
van Dierendonck, Roland
Tasnim, Mayesha
Willemsen, Lotte
Ghebreab, Sennay
contents Artificial intelligence (AI) can reproduce and amplify the structural inequities faced by minoritized communities. Participatory AI has been proposed as a response, but participation typically starts after problem definitions and success criteria have been set, leaving limited room for minoritized communities to reshape what an AI system is for. We propose AI From the Margins (AIM): a methodological stance that articulates the conditions under which lived experiences of minoritized communities can be elicited, centered, and carried forward to inform participatory AI design. AIM is not a fixed protocol; it articulates a set of preconditions that can be enacted through different techniques in different settings. We applied AIM in a Dutch healthcare context in eight sessions with 13 women and non-binary people of color and five municipal policy workers, namely through (1) narrative elicitation using the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM); (2) co-constructed rule-making; (3) participants' determination of whether, where, and how AI should be involved; and (4) translating lived experience into AI policy through dialogue with policymakers. In their reflections on the sessions, participants described the engagement as substantive and called for its continuation, demonstrating how preparatory orientation fundamentally grounded in lived experience shapes what participatory AI design is for.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_01171
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AI From the Margins (AIM): Rethinking Participatory AI Design Through the Lived Experience of Minoritized Communities
Portegies, Tijs
Willems, Laureanne
Harbers, Maaike
Sileno, Giovanni
van Dierendonck, Roland
Tasnim, Mayesha
Willemsen, Lotte
Ghebreab, Sennay
Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) can reproduce and amplify the structural inequities faced by minoritized communities. Participatory AI has been proposed as a response, but participation typically starts after problem definitions and success criteria have been set, leaving limited room for minoritized communities to reshape what an AI system is for. We propose AI From the Margins (AIM): a methodological stance that articulates the conditions under which lived experiences of minoritized communities can be elicited, centered, and carried forward to inform participatory AI design. AIM is not a fixed protocol; it articulates a set of preconditions that can be enacted through different techniques in different settings. We applied AIM in a Dutch healthcare context in eight sessions with 13 women and non-binary people of color and five municipal policy workers, namely through (1) narrative elicitation using the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM); (2) co-constructed rule-making; (3) participants' determination of whether, where, and how AI should be involved; and (4) translating lived experience into AI policy through dialogue with policymakers. In their reflections on the sessions, participants described the engagement as substantive and called for its continuation, demonstrating how preparatory orientation fundamentally grounded in lived experience shapes what participatory AI design is for.
title AI From the Margins (AIM): Rethinking Participatory AI Design Through the Lived Experience of Minoritized Communities
topic Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01171