Participatory Moral AI Is Not Neutral: The Invisible Hand of Developers

Democratic AI alignment approaches poll people on moral dilemmas to train policies --- but this study shows the "neutral" aggregation process is shaped by hidden developer choices. Across studies involving kidney allocation, AI worker simulation, and deepfakes of the deceased, the researchers show that which features get voted on, who votes, and how questions are worded all systematically shift outcomes, sometimes along political lines. This has major implications for AI governance and alignment research, arguing that voting-based systems need transparency audits at every design stage, not just at the final vote tally. Authors: Taenyun Kim, Edyta Bogucka, Daniele Quercia Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.14522v1