2025/09/09 by Oriane Peter, Kate Devlin, Peter, Oriane +1 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Corporate Insolvency and Governance #European and International Contract Law #Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems #cs.CY #cs.LG
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.08858
openalex publication_date 2025/09/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Large Language Models (LLMs) alignment methods have been credited with the commercial success of products like ChatGPT, given their role in steering LLMs towards user-friendly outputs. However, current alignment techniques predominantly mirror the normative preferences of a narrow reference group, effectively imposing their values on a wide user base. Drawing on theories of the power/knowledge nexus, this work argues that current alignment practices centralise control over knowledge production and governance within already influential institutions. To counter this, we propose decentralising alignment through three characteristics: context, pluralism, and participation. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the critical importance of delineating the context-of-use when shaping alignment practices by grounding each of these features in concrete use cases. This work makes the following contributions: (1) highlighting the role of context, pluralism, and participation in decentralising alignment; (2) providing concrete examples to illustrate these strategies; and (3) demonstrating the nuanced requirements associated with applying alignment across different contexts of use. Ultimately, this paper positions LLM alignment as a potential site of resistance against epistemic injustice and the erosion of democratic processes, while acknowledging that these strategies alone cannot substitute for broader societal changes.