Ethically Aligned Personalization: Reimagining Large-Scale AI Through Distributed Systems for an Inclusive Digital Society

Abstract

The large-scale application of artificial intelligence to personalization has become a digital infrastructure that is required, which is fundamentally changing the way individuals access information, services, and opportunities. Democracy in access may be enabled by such systems, but in society, there is a fundamental conflict between maximizing engagement and achievement. The current personalization systems are characterized by prioritizing instant interactions to the detriment of diversity in information and equal accessibility, resulting in the mentioned disparities between demographic groups, which are reported. This article suggests that distributed systems, the technical basis that makes large-scale personalization possible, could be re-architectured to include ethical concerns not as a feature but as a central element of the architecture. Through exploring the duality of AI personalization, creating an ethical system around distributed architectures, exploring regulatory needs, and demonstrating responsible systems, a direction can be seen towards personalization systems that are both optimizing and ethical in nature. These architectures combine fairness checks, cultural diversity, governance structures, and multi-objective optimization to build personalization infrastructures that broaden, not reduce, human capabilities and social cohesion.