Berkeley workshop readout: Why public participation in AI feedback is costly

beenwrekt · x · 2026-09-16

Jessica Dai's second readout on arg min of the UC Berkeley microconference on "public feedback for AI and beyond" focuses on the burdens participants face when providing feedback.

Her premise: the public has important things to say about AI experiences but decision makers rarely listen; evaluations and aggregated information can influence consequential decisions — so public-feedback-based AI evaluations could address the misalignment between AI developers and everyone else.

This post examines the costs participants actually experience: engagement is 'costly' (why human subjects studies compensate participants), and self-selection given these costs undermines representativeness. Costs also manifest concretely in ways hard to quantify economically, and extend beyond the initial decision to participate.

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