All Tech Is Human: Wrapping Up 2023 and Looking to the New Year
Thank you for helping All Tech Is Human achieve new heights. Here's what we accomplished together and where we're planning to go in 2024 and beyond.
š The holiday season is all about gratitude, and I have a lot to be thankful for.
Since I started All Tech Is Human in 2018, I have poured my heart and soul into building the Responsible Tech movement to tackle wicked tech & society issues and have a vibrant community that promotes knowledge-sharing and collaboration.
It certainly hasnāt been easy. The truth is, there were multiple times early on with the organization when I almost gave up due to our lack of financial support (we werenāt funded until summer 2021). I recall a prominent funder in the space told me that there was no need for a Responsible Tech Guide, which broke my heart. Was there a need for All Tech Is Human? Was I on the wrong path?
I deeply believe that All Tech Is Human is building an organization that is quite special, which is why I didnāt give up at that moment. This was the summer of 2020 during Covid lockdown. I knew there was a need for the Responsible Tech Guide because I had been interacting with hundreds of people who attended our summits in NYC, SF, Seattle, and online who told me that they desired to be more involved with the nascent Responsible Tech movement but had no idea where to start. How do they find the others? What does the movement look like? What are the steps they can take to get involved?
šSo I reached out to our community and the community delivered. Over 100 people volunteered to help craft the very first Responsible Tech Guide in September 2020. To get it over the finish line, I brewed a pot of coffee and typed away on my laptop at home for nearly thirty straight hours (minus bathroom breaks). Why? Because I thought the funder who turned me down was wrong and the community was right.
The community always wins. To understand pain points you need to be surrounded by othersā pain. People in insulated spaces often have power and resources but lack knowing which way the wind is blowing. They are not actively part of the community; therefore, they struggle to understand the needs of the community.
Iāve always leaned into community and have seen firsthand its power to give back. Itās quite powerful to witness it in action.
Thatās why I watch Itās a Wonderful Life every holiday season, which is all about the power of community. Yeah, sometimes I do feel like George Bailey. Getting a non-profit off the ground is a tremendous amount of work and at times can be incredibly stressful. And I have certainly felt despondent like George when there were bumps in the road.
But just as George realizes in the film that outside of his solitary focus was a generous community that was impacted by his actions and always ready to give back, I have also deeply felt the generosity of the Responsible Tech community. Itās the community that has built All Tech Is Human to what it is today, and that is what will help us grow in the coming years. Our community is quite powerful, itās quite special, and it means a heck of a lot to me.
Thank you.
All Tech Is Human is built on the power of community. We are growing from a scrappy upstart to one of the worldās most influential organizations (yeah, itās happening) because of the thousands of people who have helped spread the word, served in our mentorship program, spoken at our gatherings, offered their advice, made important introductions, and so much more. Community power in action.
We had a lot of wins in 2023, including growing our Slack community to over 7k members across 87 countries, expanding our mentorship program, launching our inaugural cohort of 43 affiliates, holding 23 in-person gatherings that brought together thousands, releasing our Tech & Democracy Report and the 4th version of our Responsible Tech Guide, and hiring on Elisa Fox, Sarah Welsh, Renee Cummings (Senior Fellow), Sara M. Watson, and Matt Soeth. This has all been in service of growing and strengthening the Responsible Tech community.
5ļøā£ We spent the first five years building the Responsible Tech movement, and we are going to spend the next five years showcasing just how powerful this is.
In 2024, we are also going to be expanding on our unique approach to tackling complex tech & society issues which can be utilized by governments, companies, and organizations across the globe. Youāll see us tackling issues around reducing CSAM, controlling our data, elevating the field of Trust & Safety, blazing pathways for new individuals to join the ecosystem, and so much more.
šWe have a lot in the worksā¦
š”Yep, we are doing big things here at All Tech Is Human. Weāre building the worldās largest multistakeholder, multidisciplinary network in Responsible Tech. This allows us to tackle thorny tech & society issues while moving at the speed of tech, leverage the collective intelligence of the community, and diversify the pipeline to better match the complexity of the challenges we face.
In other words, we are building a better mousetrap for how we can improve our tech futureānot just raise awareness of the multitude of problems. We know there are problems. But we also know we need a better approach to co-creating a tech future. Luckily, we have created one.
šThe Year Aheadā¦.
Jan 1st: Applications for our Responsible Tech Mentorship Program open up!
Jan 2nd: Sign up for one (or more) of our open working groups focused on each of our Knowledge Hubs.
Jan 16th: Weāll be announcing significant funding to help our non-profit org grow throughout 2024 and beyond. Are you interested in learning how you can support All Tech Is Human? Reach out to David Polgar to set up a meeting.
Jan 17th: Weāll be releasing our Responsible Tech Org List 2024! This will feature an expansion of our current Responsible Tech Org List, select profile interviews of org leaders, and much more. Do you know of an org that should be included? Let us know here. This project is being led by Sandra Khalil, Head of Partnerships.
Jan 29th in NYC: Weāre holding Data Action Day + Responsible Tech Mixer in partnership with Consumer Reports! With special guests Tracy Chou, Julia Angwin, and more to be announced shortly. Register today.
Feb 28th in Washington, DC: Reducing Online Harms, Making Healthier Digital Spaces, and Promoting Safety by Design. Apply through our interest form.
March 6th in NYC: Strengthening Information Integrity at the Finnish Consulate; a curated group of 75. Apply through our interest form.
Numerous livestreams to our global audience to be announced soon.
Numerous roundtables to be announced soon.
āļø 2023 By The Numbersā¦
2023 was quite a year for All Tech Is Human!
To celebrate, weāre highlighting a few numbers weāre especially proud of this year.
7,000 people across 87 countries are in our Slack community
2,200 people have joined the Responsible Tech Talent Pool
470 people across 40 countries participated in our mentorship program
People in 121 countries and 49 states subscribe to our newsletter
We welcomed 43 All Tech Is Human affiliates
We hosted 23 in-person gatherings
We published 3 reports (Tech & Democracy, Co-Creating a Better Tech Future, and Responsible Tech Guide)
āWhether youāve been with us from the start or youāre just discovering us today, weāre grateful for your participation in helping us co-create a better tech future.
šThis newsletter features select highlights from 2023, kicking off with the series that brought us together every month in New York Cityā¦
š 2023 Responsible Tech Mixer and Speaker Series
In March we launched the Responsible Tech Mixer and Speaker Series at Betaworks in New York City! The series brought together more than 200 people every month to highlight a global community of people working to co-create a better tech future. Every gathering reached venue capacity and more than 2,500 unique people registered to attend.
The series kicked off in March with a celebration of the release of Meredith Broussardās book More Than a Glitch and featured a wide range of speakers including Kashmir Hill, Maya Wiley, Rumman Chowdhury, Matt Mitchell, Nabiha Syed, Lyel Resner, Mike Masnick, Jackie Lho, Yoel Roth, and many more.
š¤Who would you like to see speak at an All Tech Is Human gathering in 2024? Reach out our way.
šAre you interested in supporting a 2024 gathering? Weāre focused on Responsible AI, Trust & Safety, Tech Policy, and Youth, Tech, and Wellbeing. Weād love to hear from you! Reach out to Josh Chapdelaine.
šThe Responsible Tech Mentorship Program
The Responsible Tech Mentorship Program was started in 2021 to help build the responsible tech pipeline by facilitating meaningful connections among responsible tech practitioners. Since the first cohort, nearly 1000 mentees have gone through the programāin 2023, we had approximately 115 mentors leading 355 mentees (a ~45% increase from 2022). Most participants were interested in Ethical AI, displacing Trust and Safety from the top spot in previous years. This year, mentors and mentees met virtually from 40 countries around the world.
Program Manager Sarah Welsh learned a lot from running this program for the first time and is looking forward to enriching the mentorship program experience even more in 2024. We want to expand a big thank you for everyone who has paid their knowledge forward by being a mentor in our program.
Curious to learn more findings about our Responsible Tech Mentorship Program? Ping Sarah Welsh to be sent over a report.
š Mentee applications will open on January 1 for a couple of weeks onlyāso keep your eyes on the website or get on the waitlist. Watch a webinar we held with some of this yearās mentors about building your career in Responsible Tech.
šWe partnered with our friends at the Consulate General of Canada in New York to produce two summits focused on the future of Tech & Democracy!
The future of technology is intertwined with the future of democracy. We were privileged to partner with the Consulate General of Canada in New York to produce two summits dedicated to exploring the critical role of technology and democracy in our world.
More than 400 people across a wide range of disciplines convened to explore the role of AI in elections, antitrust, digital spaces as a public good, and protecting children from the harms of technology. Check out the panels and fireside chats below and read a recap of our most-recent Responsible Tech Summit here. And to see the learnings from our earlier summit, view here.
šŗ Watch Tim Wu in conversation with Justin Hendrix from Septemberās Responsible Tech Summit at SVA Theatre
šCheck out the fireside chats and panels from our summit:
Frances Haugen & Nabiha Syed | Sherry Turkle & Julie Scelfo |
The Future of Digital Spaces and Public Goods | How Will AI Transform Elections?
š²In October, All Tech Is Human Executive Director Rebekah Tweed hosted author of Your Face Belongs To Us Kashmir Hill for a fireside chat. In a wide-ranging conversation Hill discusses the rise of Clearview AI and the evolving role of surveillance technology in our lives. The talk also aired on C-SPANās Book TV!
š¶ 2023 Highlight: Douglas Rushkoff Wonāt Be Autotuned
Author of Survival of the Richest Douglas Rushkoff joined All Tech Is Humanās Responsible Tech Mixer and Speaker Series to deliver a keynote talk about the problems associated with technosolutionism.
Fun fact: Rushkoffās keynote was our most-viewed video of the year! š
š„³We Hosted Two Large Gatherings in London to Expand the Responsible Tech Movement!
In April and December, we brought the Responsible Tech community together in London!
Our Tech & Democracy: A Better Tech Future Summit in April brought together hundreds of people at The Shard for panels that explored content moderation and tech policy. Responsible Tech London in December focused on the new Online Safety Act, reducing harms against children, and the complex role of encryption, and was held at the historic Conway Hall.
Both of these gatherings were in collaboration with Crisp, a Kroll Business.
šWe are already planning our return to London in 2024! Curious to learn more? Reach out our way.
šIn August, our Head of Partnerships, Sandra Khalil, led a panel discussion with Matt Dougherty, Kavya Pearlman, and Tami Bhaumik on online harm reduction. This event was hosted at Mannyās in partnership with Crisp, A Kroll Business.
āAs the Head of Partnerships for All Tech Is Human, I am proud to share the remarkable success of our collaborative efforts in advancing the responsible technology movement. Throughout the year, we organized and hosted 23 impactful in-person events, including our first and second overseas gatherings in London, which created space for emerging and established thought leaders, innovators, and changemakers to converge and discuss pressing issues at the intersection of technology, safety, and ethics.
Our commitment to fostering meaningful conversations extended beyond physical gatherings, with livestreams that garnered robust global engagement. These virtual discussions amplified our mission, reaching diverse audiences worldwide and catalyzing a collective effort to address the challenges posed by emerging threats and opportunities in tech.
Furthermore, our network expanded significantly, welcoming an inaugural cohort of 43 affiliates committed to tackling thorny issues in 2024. These strategic partnerships have fortified our ability to push this movement forward through the expertise and passion of individuals and organizations alike.
Together, we are shaping a future where technology aligns with our values, and our success in forging alliances underscores the power of collaboration in navigating this landscape. As we look ahead, All Tech Is Human remains dedicated to serving the community and ensuring a tech landscape that is both equitable and inclusive.ā -Sandra Khalil
šCurious about a strategic partnership with All Tech Is Human in 2024? Reach out to Sandra.
š š Thank you for celebrating with us at our Responsible Tech Holiday Party!
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our first annual Responsible Tech Holiday Party at Betaworks in NYC! We had a great mix of people, gave away sixty copies of Jessica Elefanteās Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom from Influence In a World Where Everyone Wants Something from You (including me), and had a nail-bitingly competitive Responsible Tech trivia!
šļø How are we building the Responsible Tech ecosystem? All Tech Is Humanās Siegel Research Fellow Sara M. Watson discusses her research in a new Q&A!
āFor five years or so, ATIH has been doing this resourcing and relationship-building work very well, by helping folks āfind the othersā and building and connecting parts of the community. Our network is so robust, and yet we only have anecdotal understanding of the type of folks who make up our community. We quip that everyone is a unicornāwith meandering career paths that lead us to tech with ānon-traditionalā tech backgrounds. Thatās fundamentally what diversifying the tech pipeline looks like.ā
š All Tech Is Human: Building a Global Responsible Tech Movement
All Tech Is Human Senior Fellow on AI, Data, and Public Policy RenƩe Cummings and All Tech Is Human affiliate Theodora Skeadas were featured on an Atlantic Dialogues panel exploring AI and the Jobs of Tomorrow for the New South. This gathering was held in Marrakech, Morocco. [Read about our new All Tech Is Human affiliates program.]
āThereās something so invigorating and engaging with emerging leaders. I enjoyed exploring AI and the Jobs of Tomorrow with emerging leaders at the Atlantic Dialogues hosted by the Policy Center for the New South where emerging leaders are immersed in high-level discussions. It was also such a pleasure having that discussion with Theodora Skeadas another brilliant mind and my āsister fellowā at All Tech Is Human.ā -RenĆ©e Cummings
š¤We met a lot of international leaders in 2023
Whether it was letting Canadian PM Justin Trudeau know about our work in Responsible Tech, doing a special roundtable with Australiaās eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant and chatting with Australian Senator Pocock about the Responsible Tech movement, meeting with Finnish Consul General, Amb. Jarmo Sareva to discuss information integrity, or discussing the Responsible Tech landscape with Zane Vagnere, Deputy State Secretary for International Affairs, Integration and Media Policy of Latviaās Ministry of Culture, we met a lot of global leaders in 2023!
š¤What do we have in store for 2024?
šA special thank you from the All Tech Is Human team for making 2023 our best year yet. Weāre honored to help grow the Responsible Tech ecosystem with you.
Community will always win. Thank you for being a valuable part of it.
āļøWe wish you a happy and healthy end of the year and look forward to continuing to empower and uplift the Responsible Tech movement in 2024!
-All Tech Is HumanĀ | Drop us an email today
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ā See all of our projects, including upcoming summits and mixers, knowledge hubs, our previous reports, working groups, Responsible Tech University Network, mentorship program, job board, community Slack group, Responsible Tech Guide, our talent matchmaking service, our Responsible Tech Talent Pool, 500+ Responsible Tech Org List, knowledge hub, Tekalo (matchmaking for social impact), our Welcome to the Responsible Tech Movement primer, and much more.
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