Despite the growing consensus that stakeholders affected by AI systems should participate in their design, enormous variation and implicit disagreements exist among current approaches. For researchers and practitioners who are interested in taking a participatory approach to AI design and development, it remains challenging to assess the extent to which any participatory approach grants substantive agency to stakeholders. This article thus aims to ground what we dub the "participatory turn" in AI design by synthesizing existing theoretical literature on participation and through empirical investigation and critique of its current practices. Specifically, we derive a conceptual framework through synthesis of literature across technology design, political theory, and the social sciences that researchers and practitioners can leverage to evaluate approaches to participation in AI design. Additionally, we articulate empirical findings concerning the current state of participatory practice in AI design based on an analysis of recently published research and semi-structured interviews with 12 AI researchers and practitioners. We use these empirical findings to understand the current state of participatory practice and subsequently provide guidance to better align participatory goals and methods in a way that accounts for practical constraints.

翻译：尽管利益相关者应参与人工智能系统设计的共识日益增强，但当前各类方法之间存在显著差异与隐性分歧。对于有意采用参与式方法进行人工智能设计与开发的研究者和从业者而言，评估任何参与式方法赋予利益相关者实质性自主权的程度仍具挑战性。本文旨在通过综合现有参与理论文献，并对当前实践进行实证研究与批判，为人工智能设计中所谓的“参与式转向”奠定基础。具体而言，我们通过整合技术设计、政治理论及社会科学领域的文献，推导出一个可供研究者和从业者评估人工智能设计参与方法的概念框架。此外，基于对近期已发表研究的分析及对12位人工智能研究者和从业者的半结构化访谈，我们提出关于人工智能设计参与式实践现状的实证发现。我们运用这些实证结果理解当前参与式实践状态，进而提出指导建议，以在考虑实际约束条件下更好地协调参与目标与方法。