Building AI With Communities, Not Merely For Them: What Sociology Brings to Participatory Design and Tech Justice

Session Submission Type: Invited Session (90 minute)

Description

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms social life, a critical question emerges: Who gets to shape these technologies and on whose terms? At this pivotal moment, the role of sociologists has never been more urgent—not only as critics and evaluators, but as co-creators in the development of emerging systems. This panel brings together sociologists and AI researchers to explore collaborative approaches to building more just and accountable technologies. Moving beyond models that reduce communities to data sources or end-users, we highlight practices that engage them meaningfully throughout the entire lifecycle of technological development. By advancing concrete strategies for building AI with communities, not merely for them, this panel offers a vision for public sociology in the age of AI—one in which the design and development of technological systems are viewed as core sociological obligations. We invite attendees to reimagine sociologists as indispensable architects of our technological futures.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Session

Presider

• Skyler Wang, McGill University

Panelists

• Angela Fan, OpenAI

• Marion Fourcade, University of California-Berkeley

• Meg Young, Data and Society

• Ned Cooper, Cornell University

• Paco Guzman, Handshake AI

• Skyler Wang, McGill University

Session Organizer

• Skyler Wang, McGill University