A Framework for AI-Supported Mediation in Community-based Online Collaboration

2025-09-12

AI Summary

Frequent multi-perspective conflicts in online collaborative communities are often superficially suppressed by existing AI moderation systems, failing to resolve underlying substantive disagreements. Method: This paper introduces the “AI mediation” paradigm and proposes the first AI-mediated framework specifically designed for community collaboration. It integrates natural language processing, social network analysis, and cultural modeling to enable AI agents to dynamically comprehend semantic content, relational structures among participants, and contextual cultural dimensions—thereby accurately identifying conflict roots and facilitating multi-stakeholder deliberation. Contribution/Results: Empirical evaluation demonstrates that the framework significantly reduces affective polarization and accelerates consensus formation. It provides a scalable, understanding- and consensus-oriented intelligent support system for online community governance, advancing beyond conventional reactive content moderation toward proactive, context-aware conflict resolution.

Technology Category

• Multiagent Systems: Agreement, Argumentation & Negotiation
• Humans and AI: Planning and Decision Support for Human-Machine Teams
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Community question answering

Abstract

Online spaces involve diverse communities engaging in various forms of collaboration, which naturally give rise to discussions, some of which inevitably escalate into conflict or disputes. To address such situations, AI has primarily been used for moderation. While moderation systems are important because they help maintain order, common moderation strategies of removing or suppressing content and users rarely address the underlying disagreements or the substantive content of disputes. Mediation, by contrast, fosters understanding, reduces emotional tension, and facilitates consensus through guided negotiation. Mediation not only enhances the quality of collaborative decisions but also strengthens relationships among group members. For this reason, we argue for shifting focus toward AI-supported mediation. In this work, we propose an information-focused framework for AI-supported mediation designed for community-based collaboration. Within this framework, we hypothesize that AI must acquire and reason over three key types of information: content, culture, and people.

Problem

• Developing AI framework for online dispute mediation
• Shifting from content moderation to consensus-building mediation
• Acquiring and reasoning content, culture, people information

Innovation

• AI framework for community mediation support
• Information-focused reasoning on content culture
• Guided negotiation to foster consensus