Taxonomy / Contestatory constitutionalism / Communities author the values the system defers to
Communities author the values the system defers to
Instead of arguing with an output after it lands, the people governed write and rewrite the norms the system applies to them, and the system is built to defer to that authored profile rather than to one fixed inside the model. The interface is the mechanism: it exposes the profile so it can be inspected, challenged and revised, which is what makes the standard itself contestable rather than only its applications. The wager is that pluralism is won at the interface layer, by handing the standard to its subjects, not by picking a better standard centrally.
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Papers
No method has been built here yet — this approach rests entirely on what follows.
Argued for, not built
These make the case for this approach, or sketch a design for it, but leave nothing built and tested behind.
Infrastructuring Contestability: A Framework for Community-Defined AI Value Pluralism
Andreas Mayer, Jul 2025arXiv:2507.051870 citationsProposalPartial
Proposes Community-Defined AI Value Pluralism: communities author their own value profiles, and the system exposes the interfaces through which those profiles can be challenged and revised.
Deference by Design: Pluralistic Alignment Is an Interface Problem
Jul 2026pluralistic-alignment.github.ioProposalPartial