Could AI Help Us Find Common Ground? A New Tool for Navigating Opposing Views

The Citizens’ Convention on UK Democracy.Photo byhttps://www.ccukdemocracy.org/

An interesting new AI tool developed by Google DeepMind aims to help people who hold opposing views find common ground and reach a consensus in discussions, an increasingly rare phenomenon in our current political environment. The chatbot-like tool does this by producing statements that seem clearer and more fair to both parties, acting as a sort of mediator in conversations.

The powerful tool can synthesize conflicting opinions and produce summaries of positions that take into account different perspectives. In a UK study, 439 (representing a large swath of the UK's demographic) participated in a study to test the new AI tool. Separated into smaller groups, they were asked to discuss policy issues and share their opinions. Those opinions and the critiques that participants levied against them were collected by the tool, which then offered summaries of the group's collective view. Participants expressed a preference for the AI-generated summaries, rating them higher in fairness and clarity.

"The model is trained to try to produce a statement which will garner maximum endorsement by a group of people who have volunteered their opinions," says Christopher Summerfield, co-author of the study and research director at the UK AI Safety Institute. "Because the model learns what your preferences are over these statements, it can then produce a statement which is most likely to satisfy everyone."

The researchers highlighted AI's potential to facilitate democratic initiatives, such as citizen assemblies, where people with opposing viewpoints can reach a compromise. However, scaling up these initiatives could be tricky, and experts caution about the implications of relying on AI in such contexts, emphasizing the importance of human interaction in fostering relationships during discussions.