Since losing my job in a round of budget-cutting layoffs at MomsRising (where I spent 10 years building web sites, IT systems, security protocols, and trainings) I have been seeking a new opportunity to help a progressive organization or campaign to more effectively use technology in support of grassroots organizing for political change. One of the things I have found in every CTO and IT Director position I see is that everyone wants to use AI now, but not everyone is sure why or how.
I am so grateful to have received a scholarship to enroll in classes to earn NTEN’s AI for Nonprofits Professional Certificate. I have been following the discussion around AI safety and ethics for many years, including as MomsRising’s Senior Director of Internal Technology and Security. This certificate program is giving me more practical tools for how to create and guide AI applications that can serve movement organizing while still staying true to our progressive values like justice, equality, and mutual care.
This week, I took a class created by Amy Sample Ward and Tristan Penn about the AI Framework for an Equitable World that was created in a community process led by NTEN in 2023. I greatly appreciate this approach which show how assessment and impact are essential and on-going elements on any AI intervention. Below is a diagram of the framework. This is exactly the type of useful resource that I and any nonprofit IT leader can can use to develop tools and processes that are both more effective and less harmful. I look forward to putting this into use soon!
Learn more and download the full report at https://www.nten.org/posts/publication/artificial-intelligence-framework-for-an-equitable-world