Manchester People’s Panels for AI

This week we were lucky to have the opportunity to visit Manchester Metropolitan University to observe one of their People’s Panels for AI – hosted by the estimable Professor Keeley Crockett and Dr Annabel Latham. They’ve been running People’s Panels for a few years, originally with funding from the Alan Turing Institute’s Public Engagement programme. But interestingly, the Manchester City Council Digital Strategy Team have recognised the value of the Panels to their design and implementation of machine learning systems, and are now supporting this work financially – great to see! We learned so much from our brief visit, in three main ways. First, we learned what kinds of projects Manchester City Council is currently developing and proposing – and with this, how they are thinking about the nature, utility, benefits and costs of AI and machine learning for their core activities. This is really important for us at the Future of Good Decisions project, as we are currently identifying which real-world systems might make good subject matter for future experimentation via Live Action Role Play. Second, we learned a lot from the participants on the People’s Panels – how they think about AI and government, where their critical attention and concerns are focused, and where greater awareness might be useful. This is crucial as we think about what knowledge-conditions enable meaningful public participation in critical system design. Finally, we continue to learn from Keeley and Annabel’s approach to participatory AI. It was fascinating to observe their Panels in action—and to be able to talk to them about everything from their approach to participant training and preparation, to their use of ‘consequence scanning’ in the panel sessions, through to the challenges of securing participants for the process—something that it can be easy to take for granted! We look forward to seeing more from the Manchester Met group, and the Council’s Digital Strategy team, too.