Welcome to the European AI & Society Fund |
Welcome to the European AI & Society Fund's latest newsletter.
This month we look at developments in the field, celebrate the achievements of our community, and bring you a new report analysing the EU's public investments in AI.
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We have welcomed a new team member - Līva Vikmane has joined the Fund as the Networks and Communications Manager. She will be supporting our communities to be as effective as possible in shaping policy around AI by making sure that we communicate relevant insights and useful information across our networks. |
We are preparing to launch a small grants programme before the summer to enable more organisations to engage in policy and advocacy around AI in Europe and join our growing ecosystem. Please fill in our quick survey by 15 April to tell us what kind of funding you would find useful so we can design this programme to best meet the needs of potential grantees. |
New report from the European AI & Society Fund: How public money is shaping the direction of AI |
Today together with Eticas we have launched a new report "How public money is shaping the future direction of AI: An analysis of the EU’s investment in AI development". It unpacks how the EU channels its funding into AI development, questioning if the money follows the EU's commitment to lead on human-centred, responsible and trustworthy AI. |
It finds these priorities are not integrated into funding programmes but are siloed as separate areas of study. As a result, only around 30% of funding calls related to AI make any mention of issues of trustworthiness, privacy or ethics. There is almost no involvement of civil society or the wider public in developing or executing programmes and no studies of the impact of the research on people and society. |
Eticas has made the dataset of information about the EU funding calls publicly available for researchers and interested groups to interrogate and use the data in their own work. |
The research comes as the European Court of Auditors announced an upcoming audit that will assess the European Commission's plans and actions to facilitate AI development, and the management of the underlying funding for AI growth. |
Focus: EDRi network celebrates 20 years |
Happy Birthday EDRi! On the occasion of network's 20th anniversary, we spoke with Sarah Chander and Ella Jakubowska from EDRi about the AI Act, recent developments in biometric surveillance, and other issues that keep them busy. |
[W]e are very much the underdog up against these vast exercises of power. At least from my perspective, what is changing in how we work is an increasing recognition that we cannot contest this alone, and that actually, the field needs to change in order to better connect with other social, racial and economic justice movements.
Sarah Chander, Senior Policy Advisor at EDRi |
Read the full interview with Ella and Sarah here. |
Mozilla invests $30m in trustworthy AI ecosystem
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This coming wave of AI (and also the last one) has tremendous potential to enrich people’s lives. But it will only do so if we design the technology very differently — if we put human agency and the interests of users at the core, and if we prioritize transparency and accountability. The AI inflection point that we’re in right now offers a real opportunity to build technology with different values, new incentives and a better ownership model.
Mark Surman, Executive Director of Mozilla and co-chair of the European AI & Society Fund on the launch of Mozilla.ai |
Platformisation negatively impacts sex workers' health and safety |
In a new publication, European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA) presents the impacts of platformisation of work on the working conditions of sex workers, arguing that the biggest platforms are developed without any consideration of sex workers’ health, safety and wellbeing, despite of them directly profiting from the labour of sex workers. |
Civil society warns against mass algorithmic surveillance law in France |
In ajoint open letter 38 civil society organisations warnedagainst indiscriminate AI-driven video surveillance measures proposed in the draft French Law on 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. They appealed to the French legislators to reject this proposal, arguing that it violates the international human rights law. |
Recommendations on Digital Services Act implementation |
Addressing EU Member States, a group of civil society organisations, including AlgorithmWatch, Homo Digitalis and Panoptykon, has called for transparency, engagement of civil society and independence of Digital Services Coordinators, when implementing Digital Services Act across the EU Member States. |
Content moderators unite!
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Our grantees Foxglove Legal, along with SUPERRR Lab and other partners hosted a summit for content moderators from across Germany. Platform workers and trade unions built connections and demandedfair pay, independent clinical support and the right to unions and bargain collectively from their Big Tech employers. |
How to govern the AI in workplace? |
In a new study on AI in workplace, AlgorithmWatch proposes employee participation in automated decision-making implementation and deployment at workplace, questioning how to protect workers' rights when algorithms are used to make decisions. Similarly, the Centre for Democracy and Technology recently called for effective remedies to be included in the AI Act, so that affected individuals could challenge decisions taken by AI systems. |
Centre for Democracy and Technology on the AI Act on Euronews |
The Director of the Centre for Democracy and Technology Europe Office Iverna McGowan was a guest on Euronews, where she spoke about how the European AI Act has to protect everyone from harmful uses of AI systems regardless of their migration status. Watch here from 9:05. |
Funding opportunitities and public interest jobs in tech, policy and AI  |
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