Publications
Global Center for Development and Strategy
Publications
Toward Future Accountability: Generative AI, Social Empathy, and Participatory Persona Design
- Admin
- 2026.08.17.
- 67
Representing future generations in present-day sustainability discussions poses a fundamental challenge because they cannot participate directly or express their interests. This study explores whether generative AI personas can make future generations communicatively present in participatory workshops and support dialogue on future accountability.
The findings show that AI persona-based dialogue can encourage participants to engage with the perspectives of future generations, while social empathy and coexistence emerge through multiple, context-dependent forms rather than as uniform capacities. The study also finds that identical AI prompts may lead different groups toward divergent conversational trajectories. It therefore conceptualizes AI personas not as autonomous voices of future generations, but as deliberately configured interaction specifications whose design and use entail distinct accountability responsibilities. The study highlights the potential—and corresponding obligations—of participatory AI in supporting sustainability-oriented and intergenerational dialogue.
