Participatory Governance for AGI Societal Impact: A Case Study of AI Ethics Community Reflexivity

The emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI) raises pressing questions about how societal institutions will adapt to rapid, automated discovery. This paper presents a case study of participatory design and deliberative polling within a major AI-ethics community (ACM FAccT) to surface shared priorities, tensions, and governance challenges. We describe a two-phase process using seed statements solicited at an in-person workshop followed by an open, online Polis survey. Participants voted on and submitted statements about the future of the conference and broader research field, producing a data-rich map of consensus and disagreement. Our findings highlight themes such as inclusivity, geographic diversity, industry engagement, governance structures, and community values. We discuss how participatory mechanisms can serve as epistemic infrastructure for governing AGI’s societal impacts, enabling reflexive oversight and alignment of institutional priorities with diverse human values.