Shaping AI
to better serve people & society.

For a fair, inclusive and sustainable future, we must ensure that Artificial Intelligence is developed and deployed to best serve the needs of people and society.

 

Too often AI is shaped by the interests of governments and the tech industry without adequate concern for the individuals and communities it affects. This can lead to technologies that entrench inequality, exacerbate social injustice and undermine people’s rights. 

That’s why the European AI & Society Fund empowers a diverse ecosystem of civil society organisations to shape policies around AI in the public interest and galvanises the philanthropic sector to sustain this vital work. 

Learn more about us

We mobilise a powerful public interest community in Europe that can turn the tide so that Artificial Intelligence serves people, society and planet.

 

Since 2020 we’ve awarded €10.5 million to over 65 civil society organisations across 26 countries.

We foster collaboration and skills so that the community works effectively together to provide a counterweight to corporate and state agendas.

Find out more about funding

We pool resources from our 17 diverse funding partners.

 

By forging a collective strategy we direct money quickly to where it’s most needed, grow and sustain available funding for the field, and build civil society and philanthropic networks to address this fast-growing challenge. 

 

Meet our partners

Grantee stories

Homo Digitalis

Challenging the use of AI-surveillance for citizen and border control in Greece 

 

Greece, as an external EU border country, has long been used as a testing ground for intrusive technologies. Backed by EU funding, Greece is increasingly using AI-automated surveillance to monitor its citizens, control asylum seekers, and turn away migrants at its borders. Homo Digitalis, Greece’s first digital rights organisation, has been investigating and shaping the use of AI at a national and European level. It coordinates the Greek AI Network and has published papers on the enforcement of the AI Act in Greece. Homo Digitalis also litigates against the development and deployment of intrusive AI systems.

 

With support from the European AI & Society Fund, Homo Digitalis has become a strong human rights watchdog in the field of AI development and deployment, especially on matters related to technology-led policing and border management activities. As the AI Act is implemented in Greece and across Europe, Homo Digitalis is advocating for it to deliver genuine accountability and protection of fundamental rights.

Homo Digitalis
Homo Digitalis present at a conference

Novi Sindikat

Mobilising Croatian trade unions so AI-driven platforms recognise gig workers as employees and improve working conditions 

 

Since more food delivery platforms entered the Croatian market in 2019, it’s become clear that their AI-driven management systems are worsening working conditions for gig workers, impacting their livelihoods and mental health. With help from the European AI & Society Fund, Novi Sindikat mobilised fellow Croatian trade unions to understand the plight of gig workers and join a pan-European campaign to implement the EU Platform Workers Directive.  

Successfully enacted in 2024, in Croatia this means that gig workers no longer have to declare themselves as self-employed or rely on contracts from dodgy intermediary organisations. They are employees by default, making it easier for them to hold AI-powered platforms – their employers – accountable and fight for better working conditions.

Novi Sindikat
Food delivery riders assemble in a public square

European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance

Advocating for sex workers’ digital rights

 

 

AI has created new challenges for online sex workers, who are often overlooked as gig economy workers. To counter this, the European AI & Society Fund funded the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA), a sex worker-led network of more than 100 organisations, overall several years to help sex workers advocate for their digital rights and strengthen a community that is often overlooked.

Funding from the European AI & Society Fund since 2020 has enabled ESWA to be recognised as experts at the intersection of digital and sex workers’ rights. As well as engaging their members, wider civil society and new funders, this is helping them establish relationships with social media platforms to promote an online environment that respects the human rights of sex workers.

European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance

FEMYSO

Empowering young Muslims to track and call out AI Islamophobia

 

AI systems can embed and amplify Islamophobic biases. In 2024, the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), demonstrated how easy it is to break the safeguards of several chatbots and generated over 270 examples of Islamophobic bias.

FEMYSO used this evidence to urge AI companies to take action against in-built discrimination in their systems. With support from the European AI & Society Fund, FEMYSO also developed an AI Islamophobia tracker.

FEMYSO
A group of young Muslim women and a man stand smiling at the camera, with lanyards around their necks.

Health Action International

Protecting patients’ care and rights from AI-driven healthcare systems

 

With AI being used to support elderly care, accelerate medicine research and development, diagnosis and mental health support, AI systems risk deepening health inequalities by using inaccurate health data, reinforcing bias and stripping patients of autonomy. Patient data captured by AI systems is also at increased risk of data breaches, and secondary use for commercial purposes by technology and pharmaceutical companies.

To counter this, the European AI & Society Fund funded independent non-profit organisation Health Action International (HAI) to become an expert on AI and health – and share their knowledge with civil society, policymakers, practitioners and journalists. With our support, they also developed their leadership skills and went on to create the Digital Rights Health Alliance, a coalition of other health justice organisations advocating for fairer application of AI in healthcare.

Health Action International
Two older people sit at a table looking at a tablet

News

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How the AI accountability Community of Practice helps collectively shape the direction of AI in Europe

In this blog, we share why we set up the AI accountability Community of Practice, and some of the insight from our first face-to-face meeting including redress methods and putting affected communities at the heart of AI accountability frameworks.

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How AI-driven welfare systems are deepening inequality and poverty across Europe

Our grantee partners Amnesty Tech and Civio, share how automated decision-making systems and algorithms used by European governments are entrenching poverty and inequality, rather than helping make society fairer.

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News

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How the AI accountability Community of Practice helps collectively shape the direction of AI in Europe

In this blog, we share why we set up the AI accountability Community of Practice, and some of the insight from our first face-to-face meeting including redress methods and putting affected communities at the heart of AI accountability frameworks.

Read more
See all reports

Publications

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AI & Social Welfare

In our first funders' briefing paper, the European AI & Society Fund sets out the challenges of AI & welfare. We highlight impactful investigations by civil society. And outline how philanthropists can support more civil society organisations to investigate, take action and guide governments to run better welfare systems.

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