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What’s Included:
- Structured research themes with VSM integration
- Suggested methods and collaboration opportunities
- Space for contributors to add comments and insights
Next Steps:
- Share the link with your group members
- Encourage participants to review and comment on the agenda
- Schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss feedback and plan further actions
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🌐 AI & Systems Thinking: Collaborative Research Agenda
Purpose: Explore the critical impact of artificial intelligence on society, economy, governance, and cooperation, using the Viable System Model (VSM) to support adaptive, ethical, and systemic thinking in design and implementation.
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🧭 Research Themes
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- State of the Art in AI • Map key trends (multi-modal models, open-source AI, agentic workflows) • Highlight impactful use cases and public/private development ecosystems • Analyze where AI aligns with or disrupts viable system functions
🧠 VSM Link: Can AI enhance System 4 (intelligence/futures) and System 3 (control)?
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- Sectoral Impacts & Use Cases • Evaluate AI integration across health, law, education, governance • Identify use cases that promote or hinder system viability
🧠 VSM Link: Use VSM to assess how sectors manage complexity and operational coherence.
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- Jobs, Labor & Responsibility • What roles are being automated or redefined? • How can humans retain ethical oversight and purpose?
🧠 VSM Link: Reassess the balance between operational autonomy and intelligent oversight (System 1–4 dynamics).
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- Power, Governance & Organizational Design • Who controls AI resources, data, and infrastructure? • Explore decentralized and federated models of AI governance
🧠 VSM Link: Apply VSM to evaluate self-regulation, distributed control, and responsiveness across governance layers.
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- Global Geopolitics & AI Competition • Analyze national AI strategies and competitive dynamics • Identify opportunities for international collaboration and AI peacebuilding
🧠 VSM Link: Use VSM to model cooperation across multi-viable systems (e.g., intergovernmental bodies).
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- Alternative, Ethical & Community-Driven AI • Explore AI systems shaped by non-profit, civic, and indigenous values • Center sustainability, equity, and autonomy in AI design
🧠 VSM Link: Investigate how local or community systems use AI to support viability, mutual care, and systemic learning.
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- Collective Intelligence & Collaboration • Evaluate how AI supports group sense-making, problem-solving, and creativity • Design AI tools for participatory systems and distributed governance
🧠 VSM Link: Leverage System 2 (coordination) and System 4 (intelligence) for enhancing cooperation.
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- Fighting Disinformation & Enhancing Trust • Audit AI’s role in detecting/generating false information • Build resilient info ecosystems using sociotechnical design
🧠 VSM Link: Frame information integrity as a core system feedback issue (System 1–3/4 interaction).
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- Applying the Viable System Model to AI Systems • Use VSM to assess the internal viability of AI organizations • Prototype AI systems that model and maintain viability at scale • Study historical and modern applications of cybernetics (e.g., Cybersyn)
🧠 Outputs: System maps, governance frameworks, AI-enhanced dashboards
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🔧 Methods • VSM mapping workshops • Participatory design research • System simulations and scenario planning • Mixed-methods case studies • Interviews with developers, communities, policymakers
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📎 Collaborative Opportunities • Joint papers or open-source white papers • Speaker sessions or public forums • Partnership with systems thinking or civic tech groups • Google Drive folders, Notion spaces, and Miro/Mural for co-creation