This deliverable (D4.1) reports on the technical infrastructure of the AI4Deliberation project, consolidating the work of the first two sprints of Work Package 4 (Tasks T4.1 and T4.2). It documents the technical foundations that enable AI4Deliberation's AI-assisted, multimodal, and gamified deliberations. In line with the Grant Agreement, the deliverable presents three main contributions: · WP4 AI toolkit and sandbox used to identify, evaluate, and operationalise open-source AI tools and models (including LLMs and multimodal/video-capable models) as deliberation services. The sandbox provides a controlled and repeatable testing environment across pilots and languages, supporting evidence-driven refinement and exposing AI functionality as reusable services via APIs. · First operational design of the Deliberation Knowledge Graph (DKG), including a dual-layer semantic model (ontological blueprint and FAIR data governance) and adoption of the IBIS framework as a core logical grammar to represent issues, positions, and arguments. The DKG layer is complemented by a Multi-Agent RAG ("Cognitive Retrieval") mechanism that translates natural-language questions into validated SPARQL queries. · First and refined versions of the Reference Architecture, evolving from the Technical Annex vision (v1) to an implementation-facing blueprint (v2) organised into distinct layers (Interaction, Data Preprocessing, Intelligence, and an enveloping Compliance layer), with explicit platform integration targets, formalised preprocessing readiness gates, and end-to-end compliance aligned with GDPR, AI Act considerations, and FAIR principles. WP4's implementation follows an agile, ethics-by-design methodology, applying the ALTAI framework as a shared operational reference for the EU's Trustworthy AI requirements. The deliverable also outlines ongoing T4.2 work to refine and (where needed) fine-tune and re-evaluate models, provide concrete AI services for pilots (e.g., deliberation summarisation and gamification), and deploy and populate a FAIR Deliberation Knowledge Graph hosted in an open-source graph database. The AI services covered include summarisation, argument extraction, moderation, translation, topic modelling, gamification, and conversational analysis, integrated across the four project pilots (German, Greek, International, and Italian).
Koutavelis et al. (Mon,) studied this question.