About Us

A few powerful corporations have captured the direction of Artificial Intelligence to serve their own interests. We want to reclaim the direction of AI so that it benefits everyone, not just the powerful few.

The European AI & Society Fund is a pooled fund that mobilises a powerful public interest community in Europe to fight for Artificial Intelligence that serves people, society and planet.

17 funding partners have combined resources to award grants, build the field, fundraise and forge collective strategies. Since 2020, we have distributed over €14.5 million to 70 organisations and 14 fellows across 26 countries.

Our objectives

• A stronger public interest community: a skilled, co-ordinated and independently-funded community of tech and social justice experts and advocates is working strategically to redirect AI to serve people, society and planet, by shaping debate, setting the policy agenda and securing accountability.

• More funding to the field: a greater number and more diverse range of funders are growing their support for a public interest agenda for AI in Europe and the resources available to the field are increasing.

• A more strategic approach: the public interest community and the funders that support them have the insights and infrastructure to work strategically and effectively together to turn the tide on AI.

The difference we’ve made to our grantees

“Thanks to support from the European AI & Society Fund, the European Disability Forum (EDF) now has a full-time AI Policy Officer. This role strengthens our internal expertise and helps EDF and its member organisations understand how AI affects human rights. Previously, we relied on digital rights organisations for guidance; now, we actively contribute to the AI policy community. Persons with disabilities experience the extreme benefits and harms of AI – some shared with other groups, but many unique to our community. This funding enables us to lead with confidence and ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind in the digital transition.”

Catherine Naughton, Executive Director, European Disability Forum

“Who decides on the algorithms that shape our daily lives? We believe this belongs to all of us. With support from the European AI & Society Fund, we’re addressing value-based questions at the heart of AI by convening diverse stakeholder groups in advisory commissions – bringing normative debates about AI modelling within democratic sight. We are grateful for the support, which has enabled Algorithm Audit to grow during the past three years into a leading European knowledge platform advancing norms and methods for algorithmic fairness and ways to institutionalize democratic control of AI.” 

Ariën Voogt, co-founder Algorithm Audit 

“The European AI & Society Fund’s support has been transformative for our AI accountability work. Their funding helped us pursue the BOSCO case all the way to a Supreme Court victory, setting a key legal precedent for algorithmic transparency in Spain. It also allowed us to develop a systematic approach combining journalistic investigations, advocacy, and coalition-building to try to bring AI governance issues into mainstream public discourse. And being part of the EAISF cohort has been invaluable: we learned from peers navigating EU-level policy spaces where we were initially lost, and that collective learning has strengthened our strategy and impact.”

David Cabo, Director, Fundación Ciudadana Civio