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AI for the People

Brooklyn, New York

Grants

2023 (2 years)
$350,000

AI for the People (AFP) is a nonprofit, public interest communications firm that supports journalists, artists, policymakers, technologists and others to increase public understanding of the disproportionate harms new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have caused to Black people around the globe. It uses popular culture and entertainment media to increase the civic participation of African Americans in efforts to reduce these harms and to advocate for a tech sector in which racial and gender justice are foundational to the design, deployment, and governance of advanced technical systems. This grant provides general operating support to AFP to raise public awareness about the impact of technology’s design and governance on Black communities and to break down barriers for more African Americans to participate in public debate on important tech-related policy issues that affect them. It does this work at the local level in partnership with local media, artists, technologists, and social justice organizations.

2021 (2 years)
$200,000

AI for the People (AFP) is a nonprofit communications firm whose mission is to produce and disseminate content that advances racial justice in technology. Founded in 2019, AFP conducts research on problematic areas of racial injustice in technology and uses it to develop media campaigns tailored to reach and educate Black communities about the racialized dimensions of technology and its impact on their lives. It does this work at the local level in partnership with local media, artists, technologists, and social justice organizations. This grant provides general operating support to AFP to create new knowledge about the impact of technology’s design and governance on Black communities and to break down barriers for more African Americans to participate in public debate on important tech-related policy issues that affect them.

2020 ( 5 months)
$20,000

AI For the People (AFP) is a non-profit that seeks to use popular culture to educate Black audiences about the social justice implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Launched in 2019, AFP works with technology experts to better understand how AI systems impact Black lives. It then partners with journalists, television producers, filmmakers and visual artists to create content that seeks to help general audiences understand how racist ideas can become encoded within AI systems. The award supports AFP to carry out a landscape analysis of projects and organizations working at the intersection of race, technology and social justice in an effort to strengthen collaboration within this quickly evolving space.