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What if the voices from society could genuinely join the conversation?
Parai researches how new technologies can contribute to strengthening our democracy. By collecting real stories from the neighbourhood and transforming rich participation input into interactive voice carriers that decision-makers can use to test their plans and policies. Which perspectives have they not yet heard? Or which needs have not yet been taken into account?
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Voice carriers
Our voice carriers are digital characters, grounded in real conversations with people, that you can interactively chat and talk with to hear their diverse perspectives. Per project there is a set of voice carriers, each representing one perspective on the topic. A voice carrier is therefore not one real person, but everything they say is traceable to real conversations in society.
Numbers, reports with bullet points, and quantitative data currently dominate decision-making. The voices from society are reduced to points that are easy to digest for decisions. Not because of bad intentions, but because with limited time a uniform perspective is practical. And because until now it simply wasn't possible to include many different forms of opinions.
Not out of bad intent, but because within limited time a uniform perspective is practical. Yet our society simply cannot be split into "80% want more greenery and 20% would rather have extra parking spaces". Reality is nuanced, complex and diverse. New technology now makes it possible to deal with large volumes of complex qualitative data in other ways.
Parai transforms qualitative input into usable insights through a transparent process, without losing detail and nuance.
“The voices of diverse residents were now directly at the table through street interviews. Which otherwise would not have been the case at this stage of the project.”
Qualitative input with depth
Survey Sam is an AI interviewer that starts a conversation. Not through a form, but by probing the ‘why’ behind every opinion.
If we can process and use long conversations, we can also hear more people. Not a score from 1 to 10 on how safe you feel in your neighbourhood. Just a conversation, in which the participant stays in control of the answers.
“Information about the OBI project will follow soon.”
From transcripts to grounded voice carriers
Step 1
58 statements from residents about heat stress. All quotes and positions, with their relations to each other, are stored in a large web for the project: the knowledge base. Our system analyses the meaning of every statement.
What if we capture everything in a collective knowledge base? Could we follow change over time and see when it is time to start the conversation again?
Semantic space
58 statements
Voice carrier: Soraya
Choose a theme
“At 35 degrees I can no longer function”
Step 2
Within each theme people hold many different perspectives on how they see that theme. What a beautifully diverse society! But complicated too, with individual positions under every perspective. That is why a voice carrier is a cluster of perspectives you can stay curious about.
“This way, the perspective of the resident gets a voice directly at the table, where that otherwise would not have been the case.”
Perspectives available where decisions are made
Above, you can see an example environment. Every environment we create is unique and may therefore look different.
Chat with voice carriers, for instance. Every response is traceable, with its source, to what real residents said.
Voice carriers can take part in policy discussions live.
Browse a knowledge graph, put statements to a round table, or view opinions on the map. We figure it out together!
“Through reflection, we discovered what we had missed.”
Critically reflect, evaluate, and iterate
We think it matters to keep exploring together how this new innovation can make an impact on our society. That is why we actively involve different stakeholders: people from organisations, from academia, and critical residents. Because we hold the reins ourselves, we can also make local adjustments.
Have a view on this? Get in touch!
About people above all: how do you stay in control of your own thinking and of the technology? And about each other, about other opinions, and about what we do not yet know.
About ourselves, each other and what we build. Doubt makes room for critical reflection and for thinking about the question you are asking. That matters all the more in an era where AI can answer anything.
Because LLMs are black boxes on the inside, a transparent process around them is especially important. But large tech companies will not sit down at your kitchen table to work out what suits your local initiative best. We will. That is why we believe in learning together from what we build.
For complex questions such as democracy there is no solution you design in one go. Change asks for turning different dials and showing, with different people, that it can be done differently. So we keep building, reflecting and improving together.
As TU Delft graduates our roots are in research and innovation. At Parai we combine a technological outlook with a strong ethical foundation. We use the possibilities of AI and other new technologies to address societal challenges. We keep our mission under critical review by actively involving researchers in our work and always keeping an eye on the nuance, context and ethical implications of what we do.
Curious about our research trajectories and their results? Get in touch.
Want to do research with, for or about Parai? Great! Get in touch too!
How we handle voices, data and trust.
We believe technology for participation only works if it is followable, fair and traceable. That is why we put our choices, technical and ethical, openly on the table.
Traceable to the source
Every statement a voice carrier makes can be traced back to what a real person actually said.
Real conversations first, never replaced
Technology should be designed so that people understand each other better and human contact is supported. Not replaced.
Clear about infrastructure
For each website, product and project, we explain which providers process data and in which countries. The arrangements may differ between projects.
Open about our choices
What we do and deliberately do not do: we share our reasoning. We are working on something new. That is exciting. And so we do not have all the answers either. Together we build that knowledge and experience.
Hi! We are the Parai team! What are you curious about?
Robin
Co-founder
I would love to talk about...
Diverse participation for an engaged democracy, challenges in youth participation, or your dreams and thoughts for the future!
LinkedInJim
Co-founder
I would love to talk about...
The implications of AI for our society and the question of how—and whether—we make this technology part of it.
LinkedInEvi
Systemic project lead
I would love to talk about...
How participation is set up within our wider system — or simply a coffee about whatever is on your mind today!
LinkedInGaetano
Developer
I would love to talk about...
How software can be built so that it takes on ethical challenges, and the biases and dilemmas we have to face around diversity
LinkedInDrop by for a cup of coffee. We always enjoy a good conversation.
