Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies are increasingly integrated into a variety of products and services. However, AI promises often fall short and unintended consequences multiply, causing a negative impact, especially on marginalised communities. In response, Participatory AI has emerged as a promising method to account for the consequences on people subject to AI and to help develop systems that are better aligned with societal values. Yet meaningful participation remains difficult to achieve. Participation tends to be short-term and consultative, or even a mask for hidden labour. Moreover, the aim of building knowledge that is situated and subjective often conflicts with the global scale and generalizability of AI, especially when it comes to foundational models. This panel unites experts to explore how to account for these issues, and more specifically, to collectively draw a picture of the limits of Participatory AI in terms of social justice.

The last decade has witnessed the expansion of design space to include the epistemologies and methodologies of more-than-human design (MTHD). Design researchers and practitioners have been increasingly studying, designing for, and designing with nonhumans. This panel will bring together HCI experts who work on MTHD with different nonhumans as their subjects. Panelists will engage the audience through discussion of their shared and diverging visions, perspectives, and experiences, and through suggestions for opportunities and challenges for the future of MTHD. The panel will provoke the audience into reflecting on how the emergence of MTHD signals a paradigm shift in HCI and human-centered design, what benefits this shift might bring and whether MTH should become the mainstream approach, as well as how to involve nonhumans in design and research.