NAIC is the acronym for Negotiating AI as a Community. What is meant by AI here is not only Artificial Intelligence, I also mean ‘Algorithmic Intelligence’ – the systems of control that are meant to serve us but often end up dominating us. These includes corporate, political and religious bureaucracies.
I call the tendency of Algorithmic and Artificial Intelligence to dominate us ADI – Algorithmic Dominance Intelligence. The opposite of ADI is ACI – Augmented Community Intelligence. ACI is the use of AI and other tools and systems to assert the value of people and human agency in the age of the algorithm.
Our concern is with:
- Using ACI in Dialogical Practice – To understand our situation more accurately through informed and inclusive dialogue – so that we respond on the basis of evidence, reason and human value rather than algorithmic push.
- Using ACI in Organisational Practice – To organise information better so that we manage it instead of being managed by it.
- Using ACI in Civic Practice – To act together, responsibly and effectively — ensuring that human conscience, relationships and agency shape the systems that govern us.
Recognising the dangers of ADI and the promise of ACI, NAIC’s purpose is to guide us community towards that use of AI that enhances rather than diminishes human agency and connection in a world not just made of steel and stone but increasingly of algorithms and code.
This is not primarily about developing tools or structures it is about developing community intelligence and consciousness.
