BCause: Human-AI collaboration to improve hybrid mapping and ideation in argumentation-grounded deliberation

TL;DR

BCause is a human-AI collaborative system designed to enhance public deliberation by transforming unstructured dialogues into structured, actionable democratic processes through innovative AI tools and human oversight.

Contribution

The paper introduces BCause, a novel discussion platform that leverages generative AI for transforming unstructured dialogue into structured, actionable public deliberation.

Findings

Effective transformation of transcripts into argumentative discussions

Geo-deliberated problem-sensing via Telegram bot

Smart reporting with customizable widgets

Abstract

Public deliberation, as in open discussion of issues of public concern, often suffers from scattered and shallow discourse, poor sensemaking, and a disconnect from actionable policy outcomes. This paper introduces BCause, a discussion system leveraging generative AI and human-machine collaboration to transform unstructured dialogue around public issues (such as urban living, policy changes, and current socio-economic transformations) into structured, actionable democratic processes. We present three innovations: (i) importing and transforming unstructured transcripts into argumentative discussions, (ii) geo-deliberated problem-sensing via a Telegram bot for local issue reporting, and (iii) smart reporting with customizable widgets (e.g., summaries, topic modelling, policy recommendations, clustered arguments). The system's human-AI partnership preserves critical human participation to ensure ethical oversight, contextual relevance, and creative synthesis.