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Coming up: 31st March 2025 - Register for our first PAIRSx Webinar ahead of the inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa.
PAIRSx Africa: Pioneering new approaches to AI through Participation
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The first edition of PAIRS took place as an independent side-event of the Paris AI Action Summit (10th - 11th Feb 2025) providing a space to present research and case studies on the state of the art in participatory development and governance of AI, and to build stronger connections across the field.
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Part 2: 8th February 2025 - 9am - 5.30pm CET - Paris & Webcast
A full day of panels, workshops and conversation with researchers and practitioners exploring democratic, deliberative and participatory public control over AI.
📽️ Agenda and recordings now available
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Part 1: 30th January 2025 - 2pm - 4pm UTC - Zoom (Completed)
An online session sharing cutting edge research and practice on giving communities a powerful say in the development and governance of AI, and in creative resistance to AI-related harms.
📽️ Agenda and Recordings available now
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Note: this was an unofficial side event organized alongside the Paris AI Action Summit. For details of the official summit and side events, please see: https://www.elysee.fr/en/sommet-pour-l-action-sur-l-ia
The Paris Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, in its focus on the public interest, trust, and governance, acknowledges that trust in AI depends on an effective feedback loop among AI developers, regulators and the broad public: necessitating more participatory approaches to AI development and governance. Scholars and policymakers have emphasized the importance of integrating diverse voices, particularly from marginalized and underrepresented communities, into AI decision-making processes to mitigate the bias, inequality, and ethical blind spots. A shift towards a participatory model challenges traditional, top-down and expert-driven approaches to AI governance and raises important questions about power, agency, representation, and accountability. Amid this incipient “participatory turn” in both the development and governance of AI our goal is to showcase work that demonstrates what it looks like, how and why to do it, as well as what can go wrong.
Through an open call we’ve sourced papers and presentations across three key themes: