Our grantees have helped put fundamental rights and democratic freedoms at the heart of policymaking on AI. They’ve brought marginalised communities such as migrants, autistic people and sex workers into the debate. And they’re exploring how AI is intersecting in criminal justice, climate, health and more.
As well as offering financial support, we help organisations build networks, gain skills and work collaboratively to drive change.
Issued: Sep 2023|1 yearClosed
Novi Sindikat
€30.000 Ecosystem grants
Croatia
With this European AI & Society Fund grant, Novi Sindikat supported collaboration between trade unions advocating for and supporting the implementation of the EU Platform Workers Directive – empowering them to engage in collective bargaining in the AI-driven world of work and effectively protects workers’ rights.
The project also equipped trade unions with the necessary knowledge and digital literacy skills to effectively navigate the complexities of AI applications in workplaces. For example, they explored issues related to data recovery as a way to reverse current power imbalances at work.
EuroMed Rights worked on the intersection of technology and migration, significantly increasing its and members’ capacity, expending partnerships and conducting new research.
Their research analysed the current state of tech deployment at the Spanish border, and mapped tech deployment at the EU’s external borders since the early 2000s. The grant also supported EuroMed Rights’ participation in joint advocacy on the AI Act, including through the #ProtectNotsurveil coalition.
With this grant, Fair Trials Europe launched a simulation criminal prediction tool, with over 5000 people completing the simulation, and more than 2000 people reaching out to the Members of the European Parliament to raise awareness about criminal justice amidst the AI act negotiations.
Together with allies, Fair Trials Europe successfully advocated for a partial ban on predictive policing in the European AI Act. They also engaged in local advocacy and research concerning policing tools used in a school in Bristol.
With this grant, Global Health Advocates focused on providing targeted policy recommendations to French decision-makers on regulating AI technologies used in the healthcare sector. Its first analysis report on the challenges of regulating AI in healthcare in France, titled “Soignons nos algos”, accompanied by a campaign urging to adopt a public label for AI systems used in healthcare.
The European Council of Autistic People built the capacity of autistic-led organisations to advocate on AI. It carried out a literature review, consultations and a multilingual survey to map AI research and technology aimed at autism to learn which applications autistic people find beneficial and acceptable. It shared the findings with autistic communities and used them to train volunteers in its member organisations to engage with policymakers, researchers and industry.
With the support of the European AI & Society Fund, Homo Digitalis hired a full-time Director of AI Matters for two years, setting up the framework necessary for transitioning to a full-time organisation and strategising sustainable future growth. This helped transform Homo Digitalis into 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.
The European Disability Forum’s (EDF) played an important role in ensuring that the AI Act included provisions to protect the rights of persons with disabilities through advocacy for mandatory accessibility for all AI systems.
Through webinars, training sessions, and workshops on AI, disability rights, and issues like AI in elections, EDF strengthened its members’ advocacy on AI and disability rights. Their AI Policy Officer was also appointed to a Canadian government committee that is developing the world’s first standard on AI and accessibility.
With this grant, CDT Europe facilitated dialogue between lawmakers and civil society at a crucial point in the AI Act development, including a roundtable event attended by 35 government officials attended representing 15 EU member states.
Civil society coordination led to a joint CSO strategy and a common voice, prioritising a rights-based approach and a holistic framework that ensures the protection of the most vulnerable and at-risk groups; strong accountability and transparency measures; strict regulation and prohibitions as necessary on the use of AI in the context of law enforcement and migration; and access to effective remedy and redress.
This grant supported Civio to pursue long-term strategic litigation against the Spanish government, arguing that the algorithms that affect people, including their source code, need to be made public. Civio filed more than ten access to information requests about known AI/ADM systems in Spanish public administrations.
They used data journalism to raise awareness and explain the impacts of digitisation of public services to vulnerable people and were one of the founding organisations a coalition of Spanish civil society organisations working in AI topics: IA Ciudadana.
