Understanding "Democratization" in NLP and ML Research

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how the term "democratization" is used in NLP and ML research, revealing it often lacks theoretical grounding and calling for more meaningful engagement with democratic principles.

Contribution

It provides a large-scale analysis of the usage of "democratization" in NLP/ML literature and advocates for integrating democratic theories into technological development.

Findings

Most uses of "democratization" refer to access and ease of use.

Many instances lack engagement with democratic theories.

Calls for richer theoretical framing in future research.

Abstract

Recent improvements in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) and increased mainstream adoption have led to researchers frequently discussing the "democratization" of artificial intelligence. In this paper, we seek to clarify how democratization is understood in NLP and ML publications, through large-scale mixed-methods analyses of papers using the keyword "democra*" published in NLP and adjacent venues. We find that democratization is most frequently used to convey (ease of) access to or use of technologies, without meaningfully engaging with theories of democratization, while research using other invocations of "democra*" tends to be grounded in theories of deliberation and debate. Based on our findings, we call for researchers to enrich their use of the term democratization with appropriate theory, towards democratic technologies beyond superficial access.