Local knowledge is not just another input field

The representation problem

A contextual AI system may invite a person to supply information about their situation. That does not resolve how the system interprets it, which parts it ignores, or who gets to contest the resulting advice.

This note asks whether “adding context” can hide a shift in authority. A system may repeat a person’s vocabulary while still placing its own interpretation above theirs.

A question for PICHNET

In PICHNET, the conceptual interest is not only whether advice uses local information. It is whether the person retains room to judge the advice and make the decision their own.

One possible design requirement is to expose uncertainty about context rather than quietly treating a short description as complete.

Connection to development

For AI in development contexts, the same issue becomes a question of whose categories shape the system. This is an early line of inquiry, not a claim about any community’s needs.