“Where We Belong: Leveraging Participatory Design to Co-Create a Conversational AI” presented by Young, Addanki, Bondili and Dhopate
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Meet Carry, a conversational agent empowering those navigating the impacts of displacement via participatory design. Drawing from interdisciplinary methodologies, The project integrates narrative frameworks into a custom AI model to facilitate meaningful and thought-provoking exchanges across physical and digital divides. The agent serves as an interactive archive and catalyst for reciprocal storytelling, enabling participants to share their experiences while encountering diverse perspectives from the system’s database. This paper discusses key design considerations, including the ethical challenges, and strategies to prioritize a sense of belonging. Findings highlight the potential of AI-driven conversational agent to contribute to participatory archives and communal understanding by amplifying lived experience and fostering connections across diverse communities.
