The Importance of Multistakeholder Collaboration
Plus two upcoming livestreams, speaker announcements, in-person gatherings, and the global landscape for AI Safety institutes
đWelcome back to All Tech Is Humanâs newsletter, where we move at the speed of tech while tackling the worldâs thorniest tech & society issues. Our organization brings together expertise, a sandbox for solution-making, and a novel structure for socialization and mobilization. Weâre glad youâre part of the community!
đIn todayâs newsletter, youâll read about our livestream this Thursday on the risk of autonomous agents, our livestream next Thursday about reducing online harms, and an in-person (NYC) gathering on April 2nd discussing influencer culture and digital wellbeing. Youâll also read a new piece mapping AI safety centers globally, and announcements about our April 23rd gathering (Safety by Design: Making Impact and Mobilizing Change) and May 21st gathering (Strengthening Multistakeholder Collaboration in Responsible AI). Coming newsletters will expand on our July 16th gathering in London, along with special convenings in SF and DC.
đ¤Phew. You may be wondering, âhow and why does ATIH focus on so many areas?â The answer: complex problems benefit (and necessitate) interrelated issues under one umbrella. All Tech Is Human was created because we need a better way to tackle thorny tech & society issues, and we deeply believe this requires a network approach that leverages collective understanding, involvement, and action. Letâs just say our favorite animal is an octopus with eight arms, nine brains, and one body. Itâs the highly-adaptive and flexible approach we need.
Now, onto the newsletter! đ
Safety by Design: Making Impact and Mobilizing Change
âď¸Check out our incredible lineup of speakers for our upcoming gathering on April 23rd. There will be Trust & Safety professionals, youth leaders, researchers, and everyone in between for our two panels (being recorded) and ample time for networking.
Some of the companies and orgs in attendance include the ADL Center for Technology & Society, Anthropic, Apple, Common Sense Media, Design it For Us, Digital Trust and Safety Partnership, Discord, GIPHY, Google, HopeLab, IBM Research, Integrity Institute, Internet Safety Labs, KPMG, LinkedIn, Mastercard, Meta, Microsoft, Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA), NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics, Oversight Board, Pinterest, Pirth.org, Prosocial Design Network, Rockstar Games, Safe Online, Salesforce, Spotify, Thorn, TikTok, Tinder, Tubi, Uber, UNFPA, UNICEF, United Nations Development Programme, X, Young People's Alliance, YouTube, and more.
Because the demand for attendance greatly exceeds venue capacity (200), individuals should apply through our interest form, and invites will follow to those selected.
The Risks of Fully Autonomous Agents
Join us this Thursday, March 20th at 1pm ET for a conversation between Rebekah Tweed and special guest Margaret Mitchell (Researcher and Chief Ethics Scientist at Hugging Face) on the risks of fully autonomous agents. Your questions will be incorporated into the conversation.
They will be digging into the paper that Margaret and her Hugging Face colleagues recently released, Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed and more!
The Global Landscape of AI Safety Institutes
We're thrilled to publish this landscape analysis by authors Juhi KorĂŠ and Ebani Dhawan. This is a snapshot of key insights from a forthcoming comprehensive report; if you would like to be involved and/or offer feedback/resources, please fill out our form at the end of the article.
On March 12, we held a brainstorming session to unpack the various thorny issues presented by AI Companions. Mixing together a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives, we surfaced the complex ethical, psychological, legal, and sociological issues that necessitated a significant amount of thoughtfulness and multistakeholder collaboration. As participant Kirsten Co wrote online after the roundtable, â[w]ithout first acknowledging the trust dynamics and human behavior these systems are already shaping, we risk building frameworks that miss the mark.â
"I think this roundtable was a valuable exercise because not only did we delve into the expertise around us, but we talked about who is not in the conversation. There are so many people whose lives are affected by AI outside of us who work on this issue: teachers, journalists, lawyers, activists etc. When we do this work of interrogating the representation we desperately need, only then can we move forward in identifying harms and finding viable solutions." - Mina Mohammadi, AI Policy PM at Mozilla
Weâll be having upcoming livestreams, roundtables, and an eventual report focused on AI Companions. If you would like to be involved in our AI Companions Initiative, you can let us know through our interest form.
ATIH Author Series: Live in NYC on April 2nd
On April 2nd in NYC, we will be having an intimate conversation about influencer culture and digital wellbeing with Jessica Elefante. Jessica is the author of Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom from Influence in a World Where Everyone Wants Something from You (including me). Register here.
Announcing panel topics for our May 21st Responsible AI gathering
In our last newsletter, we announced at our upcoming Strengthening Multistakeholder Collaboration in Responsible AI will be featuring the Nabiha Syed and Dr. Rumman Chowdhuryâtwo trailblazing leaders pushing for a better tech future. Today weâre announcing the two panel topics for conversation: Aligning Transatlantic AI Governance in a Shifting Regulatory Landscape and The Role of Civil Society and Research in Shaping Responsible AI Policy.
This is a highly-curated in-person gathering in NYC on May 21st for 75 leaders in Responsible AI. If you would like to be considered for attendance, or have ideas you would like to share with us, please use our application form.
Letâs Reduce the Harms of Social Media
Adele Zeynep Walton is a British-Turkish journalist reporting on the human impacts of digital technology and social media, and the author of Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World. Growing up as a Gen Z, Adele spent endless hours as a teenager on social media, shaping her view of herself and the world, but after losing her sister to online harms, she realized that our current digital world is failing us.
All Tech Is Humanâs Rebekah Tweed spoke at the inaugural Summit on State AI Legislation (SSAIL), hosted by the Digital Ethics Center (DEC), Yale University, on the panel: AI on the Ground: Perspectives from Civil Society. In addition to civil society leaders, the invite-only Summit convened leading state legislators, open-source developers, academics, and industry leaders to share insights and foster meaningful discussion about how to regulate AI at the state level. ATIH advisor Theodora Skeadas and Leah Ferentinos were in attendance as well.
The Summit was co-organized by Connecticut State Senator James Maroney, who is working with the National Conference of State Legislators, and the Summit will inform legislative efforts nationwide. Insights from SSAIL will not only contribute to concrete legislative proposals across the country, but also a commentary article to be published in an academic journal.
đĄRelated Initiative: All Tech Is Human is busy planning upcoming Responsible AI Governance workshops and task forces. If you would like to apply to participate, you can do so through our interest form.
On March 14, All Tech Is Humanâs Sherine Kazim attended âImagining San Franciscoâs Future: A Gathering of Civic Leaders and Changemakersâ. Hosted by The Plenary, Co., Commonwealth Club World Affairs, and Global Philanthropy Forum, and set against an art+science storytelling exhibition, the evening brought people together from government, the arts, policy, and social innovation who are shaping the city's next chapter.
đ In Case You Missed ItâŚ
All Tech Is Human moves at the speed of techâŚhere are some recent happenings and projects for you to get involved with.
đşď¸âFrom Public Sector to Purpose-Driven Tech: Navigating Your Next Moveâ, a webinar designed for professionals transitioning from government or adjacent roles into Responsible Tech. Speakers included Deb Donig (ATIHâs Siegel Research Fellow), Deepti Doshi (Co-Director at New_ Public), and Camille Stewart Gloster (Director, AI & Resilience Services at Crowdstrike) with moderator Rebekah Tweed. Done in collaboration with our friends at New_ Public. (If you are currently looking for a role, check out the numerous jobs being shared in our Slack community and in our new Responsible Tech Careers newsletter.)
đAre you a NYC-area college student looking to get into Responsible Tech? Our Princeton University Fellow Abby Fergus is helping put together an ATIHx event on April 5th (11am to 3pm), hosted at the New York Institute of Technology's NYC campus. Learn more here.
đWe are hosting a gathering in London for 250 people focused on online safety, happening on July 16th at The Royal Society. We are currently confirming speakers, and will start sending invitations in two weeks. Apply here.
đAre you in Toronto? ATIHx Toronto will be gathering on March 26 following a successful event last month organized by community member Rose Genele.
đŽAre you in DC? Stop, collaborate, and listen with ATIH Founder David Ryan Polgar who will be delivering a keynote on April 3rd at the Pepperdine Universityâs 3rd Annual Social Enterprise Collective â DC. David will be speaking about the future of cross-sector collaboration, and how partnerships across sectors drive systemic change.
đşOur recent livestream with Mara Einstein, author of Hoodwinked, recently appeared on C-SPANâs Book TV program! Fun fact: this is the fifth time that All Tech Is Human conversations have been featured on C-SPAN. Our previous ones featured Kashmir Hill, Greg Epstein, Frank McCourt, and Dr. Joy Buolamwini.
đThe Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF) is hiring! PJMF has been an incredible supporter of All Tech Is Human, helping us build the worldâs largest multistakeholder, multidisciplinary network in Responsible Tech. They are currently in search of a People & Culture Associate and Project Management Associate.
đTogether, we tackle the worldâs thorniest tech & society issues
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đŚ Looking to chat with others in Responsible Tech after reading our newsletter? Join the conversations happening on our Slack (sign in | apply).
đŞ Are you part of a foundation that wants to support our mission? Reach out directly to David Ryan Polgar. If you find our work important, please reach out to ensure All Tech Is Human can continue to build the Responsible Tech community and provide an essential space for knowledge-sharing and solution-making.