Socially-Guided Machine Learning for Self-Organised Community Empowerment

Asimina Mertzani, Jeremy Pitt

2025

Abstract

Two key features of self-organising socio-technical systems are, firstly, the interaction of humans with AI,and secondly, the collective determination of social arrangements. However, this presents the risk of an inequitable distribution of power: either by translating or reinforcing existing power asymmetries directly into digital systems, unintended concession of power by human to computational, or arrogation of power by using AI as a proxy. In this paper, based on a definition of empowerment, we implement a socially-guided machine-learning system which integrates multi-agent system, generative AI and user-centred visualisation. The system is evaluated through proof-of-concept demonstrations showing how it could assist users in understanding the impact of social arrangements and so empower communities with choice, control and innovation. The significance of this work is to show how, through the synergy of human expertise, generative AI and (multi-)agent-based simulations, it might be possible to enhance human creativity to imagine original social arrangements, visualise their impact on community empowerment, and maintain an equitable distribution of power.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Mertzani A. and Pitt J. (2025). Socially-Guided Machine Learning for Self-Organised Community Empowerment. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART; ISBN 978-989-758-737-5, SciTePress, pages 24-35. DOI: 10.5220/0013081900003890

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart25,
author={Asimina Mertzani and Jeremy Pitt},
title={Socially-Guided Machine Learning for Self-Organised Community Empowerment},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART},
year={2025},
pages={24-35},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013081900003890},
isbn={978-989-758-737-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART
TI - Socially-Guided Machine Learning for Self-Organised Community Empowerment
SN - 978-989-758-737-5
AU - Mertzani A.
AU - Pitt J.
PY - 2025
SP - 24
EP - 35
DO - 10.5220/0013081900003890
PB - SciTePress