Humanitarian AI Today: Recent Episodes
Humanitarian AI Today
Humanitarian AI Today is the leading AI for Good podcast series focusing on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence. We interview leaders, developers and innovators advancing humanitarian applications of AI from across the tech and humanitarian communities. The series is produced by the Humanitarian AI meetup.com community, linking local groups in Cambridge, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Toronto, Montreal, London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Geneva, Zurich, Bangalore, Tel Aviv and Tokyo.
On this special Humanitarian AI Today episode recorded in Chinese and English, Lili Qiu, Co-founder and Chief Supervisor of the Peaceland Foundation speaks with guest host, Brent Phillips, and Ankang Song, Executive Director at Global Youth Philanthropy, about the Peaceland Foundation’s aid work around the world and experimentation with AI.As the global humanitarian community gathers for the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, this insightful interview offers Western organizations an exclusive window into how China's fast-evolving technology ecosystem is transforming disaster relief and healthcare. The discussion explores how Chinese non-profits are actively experimenting with cutting-edge AI, from deploying autonomous medical rescue ships to standardizing drones for wildfire and flood responses. The podcast episode highlights the dynamic partnerships driving these innovations, showcasing how Chinese organizations closely collaborate with universities and research institutions to test intelligent equipment in real-world disaster scenarios. It also addresses the operational agility required to keep pace with China's rapid tech advancements while keeping production and supply chain costs exceptionally low for underdeveloped regions. Most importantly, the interview serves as a bridge for international cooperation, offering practical advice on how Western and Chinese organizations can break through linguistic barriers, build mutual trust, and establish direct channels for meaningful cross-border collaboration.
. This means ensuring that frontline staff can confidently explain AI-driven outcomes to affected populations, and that AI systems never silently or inequitably exclude the very people humanitarians are bound to protect.Ultimately, they agree that while the rapid expansion of AI is exciting, organizations must maintain a healthy balance of curiosity and caution, allowing their concerns to drive continuous learning and the proactive questioning necessary to confidently take responsible steps forward. Because there is absolutely no margin to get it wrong in a humanitarian crisis, this collective effort reminds listeners that stress-testing AI governance under extreme, high-stakes conditions does not just safeguard vulnerable populations; it creates a vital proof of concept with profound lessons for how responsible AI should be governed anywhere in the world.
In this Humanitarian AI Today Voices flashpod, Theodora Skeadas, Head of AI Red Teaming with Humane Intelligence, joins guest host Brent Phillips to unpack for staff from humanitarian organizations what AI red teaming is and how Humane Intelligence approaches carrying out AI evaluations. They also discuss the nonprofit’s mission to make AI systems more accountable, fair, and safe and the organization’s latest initiatives.The discussion traces the evolution of Humane Intelligence’s evaluation work, highlighting recent milestones such as the open-source release of their evaluation application and their expanded bias bounty programming in collaboration with platforms like Zindi. Theodora outlines the fundamentals of artificial intelligence evaluations and red teaming methodologies applied to humanitarian applications. The discussion offers a practical introduction to the testing and evaluation of generative AI models, specifically tailored to help staff from aid organizations understand how these systems operate and learn how to carry out effective risk assessments.For humanitarian actors looking to ethically integrate artificial intelligence into active crises workflows, the interview provides a grounded framework for identifying potential harms before and after applications deployment. Theodora outlines how organizations can proactively red team tools for systemic vectors of concern, including factuality, geographic bias, and public health misinformation using simple workplace tools like spreadsheets or through step-by-step guidance found in resources like The Playbook: Red Teaming Artificial Intelligence for Social Good. By demonstrating how humanitarian actors can systematically test language models for safe output boundaries, the conversation illustrates a critical pathway toward building more transparent, responsible, and localized AI implementations across the sector.
Civic AI” and the creation of persistent, multilingual, and context-aware personal AI agents designed to help citizens frictionlessly navigate complex public systems. The conversation is packed with updates on data.org’s latest initiatives, including regional hackathons and the Finverse, a decision support tool and resource hub designed to help organizations in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region use data and AI to improve the financial health of the individuals and communities they serve. This episode is a must-listen for social impact professionals, researchers, and anyone invested in a more equitable and human-centered AI future.
Blue Sky Studies”which are highly detailed structural mapping done when there is no active emergency to locate vulnerabilities before disaster strikes. A prime example of this is the lab’s SCAN (Supply Chain Analysis Network) mapping, which evaluated infrastructural bottlenecks in transportation and fuel pipelines.Looking toward the future of humanitarian tech, the conversation highlights cutting-edge applications of predictive modeling and advanced AI training. For AI developers, Goentzel offer’s a futuristic vision for disaster AI: rather than letting a machine application start from scratch during an active crisis, the lab is actively researching ways to pre-embed AI with complex supply chain network science and system dynamics. By providing the machine with a sophisticated baseline of structural interdependencies beforehand, the AI can immediately interpret real-time news and data influxes with extreme speed. This effectively frees up human humanitarian leaders to step away from the information onslaught and focus entirely on creating the rapid physical and collaborative connections needed to save lives.The MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab offers resources and educational platforms to connect researchers, technology experts, and ground-level aid workers. Goentzel invites listeners to join the lab’s humanitarian supply chain community and take advantage of free online course developed by the lab, like the lab’s free Humanitarian Logistics course through MITx: https://www.edx.org/learn/business-administration/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-humanitarian-logistics An article on the Lab's supply chain resilience work can be found here: https://ctl.mit.edu/sites/default/files/documents/scmr-innovation-strategies-september-2025.pdfTo learn more about Eric Talbert’s work and the MedCycle Network, check out his interview on the Grow Healthy, Help People Podcast: https://youtu.be/w495cOVVajw?si=EMZLr-zZXAWM93Oq
, the practiced ability to evaluate AI outputs critically. That raises its own problems: how do those skills get built, and are they really the same kind of skill as the hypothesis-generating instincts they would replace? Ai2 is actively studying this by examining how tools like AutoDiscovery affect students and early-career researchers. For humanitarian and development professionals navigating an era of shrinking research budgets and growing AI adoption, these added points raise essential questions about keeping human judgment at the center of discovery.
for those with limited digital literacy. She advocates for the development of inclusive models that strip away linguistic and gender biases to provide safe, life-changing access to justice, healthcare, and government services. This vision ensures that technology serves as a bridge for equality, providing every citizen with a reliable companion to navigate a rapidly changing world. She concludes with a powerful call for radical collaboration among foundations and NGOs, urging stakeholders to move past silos and genuinely partner to eliminate the bottlenecks holding back progress.
Co-produce by Humanitarian AI Today, this third pilot episode of The Inference Layer podcast bridges the technical complexities of AI deployment with the reality of humanitarian operations and dives into the transition from static models to autonomous agentic systems. On behalf of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast, guest host Patrick Hassan, an AI policy lead with a background in disaster response, interviews Federico Pierucci, Scientific Director of the Icaro Lab, to explore how the inference layer is becoming a site of significant systemic risk. The discussion provides a unique look at inference-time failures such as alignment drift and steganographic coordination that emerge only when multiple agents interact in production environments.For humanitarian actors, the episode raises concerns regarding operating in an era of assistance automated by layers of AI agents. The dialogue highlights how multi-agent chains used for beneficiary selection or resource allocation for example can degrade, develop invisible biases or be weaponized or politicized by parties to a conflict. Federico explains that these risks can be compounded by a lack of safety benchmarks for things like underrepresented languages and dialects, which can lead to unpredictable jailbreaks or administrative failures in the field.The episode provides an inside look at pioneering research being carried out by the Icaro Lab, a Rome-based laboratory specialized in AI safety in collaboration with the Sapienza University. The lab focuses on mechanistic interpretability, a technical field dedicated to understanding the internal attention heads and decision-making units of an AI to decipher how it truly processes information. The discussion introduces the concept of Institutional AI, a proposed framework to manage these emerging xeno-behaviors through a governance graph. Rather than relying solely on prompt engineering or model-level alignment, Federico argues for a protocol-level solution that can manage misbehaving agents during inference. The episode is informative for professionals seeking to understand why AI safety must evolve from a localized technical challenge into a global institutional design problem, particularly in regions where traditional governance has broken down.This particular episode moves beyond surface-level AI ethics and safety issues that the humanitarian community has been talking a lot about, to address inference-time vulnerabilities in agentic systems. This is an important topic because as the humanitarian community moves from developing and testing simple chatbots to incorporating autonomous multi-agent systems into humanitarian operations, we face new challenges that can have very serious consequences - making the 'inference layer' a new frontier for humanitarian risk.
for humanitarian cooperation that the humanitarian community can collectively maintain and evolve. Zineb stresses that CLEAR’s goal is bring together humanitarian, academic and private sector partners through a consortium to integrate diverse data sources into unified early warning and early action systems, leveraging artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to transform how humanitarian organizations detect, prepare for and respond to crises.Discussing CLEAR and challenges associated with the collection and use of data by aid organizations and the imperative to do better, Zineb nevertheless emphasizes that strict data governance remains a priority to protect the safety and sensitivity of information regarding vulnerable populations. By prioritizing an agile, safety preserving, open-source approach that bridges the gap between available information and field response, the initiative seeks to create a more resilient and unified technological foundation for the entire humanitarian ecosystem.
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In short daily flashpods, Voices passes the mic to guests to learn about new projects, events and advances in artificial intelligence and discuss topics that are important to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Lukas Borkowski, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Viamo shares how artificial intelligence can serve the billions of people who remain offline and rely on basic mobile phones. In a conversation with Humanitarian AI Today producer, Brent Phillips, Lukas spotlights the reality that most people in lower income countries live their lives largely offline and disconnected from the benefits of emerging AI applications while at the same time live under mobile network coverage.Lukas describes how Viamo works directly with mobile network operators to negotiate long-term partnerships that enable national-scale, toll‑free hotlines and behavior-change campaigns and he describes how Viamo is rapidly expanding voice-first gen‑AI experiences for use cases like rural health worker hotlines and disaster-preparedness campaigns.He outlines Viamo’s cloud and in‑country server architecture, their use of generative AI and speech technology in local languages, and their specialization in behavior-change communication design that is tailored to specific geographies and demographics. Offering examples from public-health collaborations, he illustrates how voice-based generative AI can support and provide both community members and frontline workers with accessible information, advice and decision support.Touching on broader ecosystem challenges, Lukas highlights the lack of high-quality speech technology for many African and Asian languages and calls for more investment, standardized tooling, and collaboration with aggregators like Viamo rather than fragmented pilots and one-off solutions. He calls for partners who bring clear behavioral objectives and a willingness to deploy imperfect but improving tools, arguing that waiting for perfect technology delays agency for people who urgently need trustworthy information. Looking ahead, he envisions seamless voice experiences where, in a single call, users can learn about services, ask personalized questions, and complete tasks.
that treats brand identity and donor friction with the same rigor as top companies. The conversation primarily touches on digital transformation and how organizations can leverage AI to bridge the gap between small-scale manual engagement efforts and scalable, one-to-many engagement models. The interview serves as a strategic roadmap for humanitarian practitioners looking to navigate the complexities of AI and ensure that technology serves as an invisible operating layer that amplifies human impact rather than obscuring it. Javan argues that the solution lies not just in adopting more tools, but in ensuring that those tools are secondary to a primary, authentic narrative that builds long-term trust with a global audience.
needed for accurate climate forecasting. Panos offers a somber closing perspective, likening the struggle against climate change to a war where key battles may already be lost. He argues that AI's greatest potential might lie in creating clear, uncurated narratives to help the public and politicians grasp the existential urgency of the crisis. To help address this need for reliable information, Sally highlights the launch of EnvironmentGPT, a new tool designed to make environmental science easier to access and understand.Humanitarian AI Today is a community-led initiative advised and co-produced by collaborating organizations and technology companies. Amidst a fragmented landscape, the podcast serves as a recognizable channel for organizations, donors, and innovators to collectively use to report AI projects, events and advances, turning raw insight into collective intelligence.
of connectivity in places like Puerto Rico and Ukraine. Yarissa shares insights on how local professionals navigate rolling blackouts and infrastructure hurdles to maintain digital livelihoods. Looking toward the future, she envisions AI becoming an invisible operating layer in daily life and encourages humanitarian workers to view AI as a tool for augmentation rather than a threat, urging them to find use cases that make practical sense for their missions.
allowing for precise, context-aware answers to user queries. Her project highlights uses of Neo4j combined with Local Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Olena and Brent help to provide staff from Humanitarian organizations with an introduction to Neo4j and how knowledge graphs could help transform humanitarian aid by mapping complex relationships between organizations, people, and activities across global crises.
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five to fifteen minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Ali Al-Mokdad, a humanitarian leader speaks with Humanitarian AI Today producer, Brent Phillips about his experimental AI-native podcast called “Quantum Humanitarian” which explores the intersections of humanitarian realities, diplomacy, technology, and global affairs. Unlike traditional formats, this series does not follow scripts written by Ali Al Mokdad. Instead, it is powered by AI reading, assessing, and analyzing Ali's work, research, articles, and webinars, turning those insights into structured conversations and deep explorations of key themes. This is the first AI-native podcast in the humanitarian and development sector, pioneering a new way of exploring complex global issues through AI.This experiment aims to visualize future workflows in the humanitarian sector and explore how agentic AI can represent human thought in the digital landscape.Ali shares several surprising observations from producing 29 episodes, noting that the AI hosts have become remarkably adept at identifying trends in his work and even mimicking his specific vulnerable yet data-driven style. Ali emphasizes that the primary challenge of AI is not the technology itself but the organizational transformation required to leverage it. He urges the humanitarian community to invest in learning and development rather than overestimating risks or underestimating the opportunities presented by these tools.
surrounding AI use to facilitate an open, community-wide dialogue about risks, operational best practices and lessons learned.
powered by federated learning and blockchain to share threat intelligence while maintaining data sovereignty. Both speakers emphasize that authentic AI literacy and genuine partnerships with local technologists are essential to ensuring that emerging technologies support democratic civic spaces rather than reinforcing existing vulnerabilities.
that protect humanitarian data, much like the physical Red Cross flag protects aid workers under the Geneva Conventions. Looking forward, the guests explore the potential for defensive uses AI designed specifically to do things like safeguard human rights and provide medical guidance in conflict zones where traditional support has been severed. Finally, they call upon the academic and technology communities to deepen their engagement with the humanitarian sector, helping organizations of all sizes navigate the rapid evolution of AI and unlock its potential as a force for global good.Interview notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.medium.com/humanitarian-technology-under-siege-a-conversation-with-catalina-rebollo-from-wired-en-espa%C3%B1ol-c7f143c98c97
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Radek Wierzbicki, CEO of Unsung Heroes, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips about his team’s work connecting startups with humanitarian organizations and Unsung Heroes’ Humanity Badge initiative, a platform that builds the reputation of humanitarian and development workers and their organizations. They discuss Unsung Heroes’ core interests in advancing digital literacy and entrepreneurship and their work in Tanzania supported by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Polish Embassy in Tanzania helping mentor young people interested in launching technology startups. They also discuss Unsung Heroes’ work distributing and training people on using computers and AI applications, and their work launching and partnering on technology incubators and accelerators advancing digital entrepreneurship.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/radek-wierzbicki-from-unsung-heroes
In this episode of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast, Siem Vaessen, CEO of Zimmerman and an IATI Governing Technical Board Member, and Sylvan Ridderinkhof, Data Engineer at Zimmerman, joined Brent Phillips to discuss the critical intersection of artificial intelligence, open data, and humanitarian collaboration amidst a rapidly changing and advancing landscape. Drawing on insights from the NetHope Summit, the guests highlighted a consensus that the sector must collaborate more closely around AI and open data sharing, a necessity largely driven by significant cuts in aid funding. Siem, Sylvan and Brent discussed Zimmerman's long-standing commitment to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), an open data sharing framework widely used by humanitarian organizations to share granular information on aid activities, transactions and results. The discussion delved into Zimmerman's work and its future roadmap, focusing on enhancing the usability and quality of IATI data and on simplifying the complex process of reporting aid activities through IATI. They touched on the launch of Zimmerman’s updated AIDA (Aid Information Data Analytics) data platform and on other Zimmerman products and services tailored for the humanitarian aid and development communities and how they’re looking at ways of leveraging AI to improve search capabilities and support data enrichment processes. They also however caution listeners on risks posed by AI adoption, capable of potentially impacting IATI data quality and usability. Because AI models and agents aren’t natively trained to understand complex and subtle differences in ways that organizations report aid activities and publish their data, AI applications risk misinterpreting aid activity information. The use of AI applications to enhance and augment IATI data could add to these challenges, making complex, granular analysis of IATI data difficult or prone to misinterpretation without measures being taken to mitigate these risks . Ultimately, the guests stressed that the progress of humanitarian technology hinges not just on powerful tools but on responsible innovation and a greater commitment to collaboration, including actively engaging with local actors and organizations that may traditionally be excluded from technical discussions on uses of AI.Interview notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.medium.com/siem-vaessen-from-zimmerman-on-iati-collaboration-around-ai-and-the-development-aid-landscape-ebd36e0f20e9
as funding moves toward philanthropic or paid-for services.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/jessie-pechmann-from-humanitarian
Yuriy Boyechko, Founder and CEO of Hope for Ukraine, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Emrys Schoemaker, Senior Director of Policy and Advisory with Caribou Digital. They discuss Hope for Ukraine’s work, humanitarian needs in Ukraine this Winter and the organization’s new mobile app (Nadiya) which helps connect individuals and families affected by the war with essential food supplies, education services, and housing resources. They also discuss ways of integrating applications of AI into the app and use the opportunity to discuss digital inclusion, digital identity and challenges associated with assessing needs, authenticating aid recipients and aid suppliers, and broader challenges associated with digital security.Episode notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.medium.com/yuriy-boyechko-on-hope-for-ukraines-new-mobile-app-nadiya-1b1ed5deb923
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Olivier Mills, Founder of Baobab Tech, talks about NetHope’s Global Summit and Dev Explorer, a Frontier Tech Hub pilot project supported by FCDO, with Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips. They cover takeaways from NetHope’s recent Global Summit and conversations that took place focusing on rapid advances in AI and on the need to see humanitarian actors work more closely around AI from deeply technical vantage points. They also discussed Dev Explorer, open data sharing frameworks like IATI, explainable AI and new funding initiatives like Humanity AI.This conversation explores critical challenges that the humanitarian community faces in keeping pace with the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. Olivier and Brent highlight the urgent need for humanitarian actors to move beyond high-level discussions and build new pathways for effective, deeply technical collaboration to harness AI's potential responsibly.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/olivier-mills-from-baobab-tech-on
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Cole Leng, an AI Researcher at Harvard and former Project Manager with Nexa AI, sits down with Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to discuss the state-of-the-art and future trajectory of on-device machine learning.The discussion provides researchers and staff from humanitarian organizations with important insights into where the state-of-the-art in on-device machine learning stands today and where the cutting-edge is heading. Cole examines the critical trade-offs between on-device and cloud models, analyzing their respective workflows, performance limitations, and implementation considerations to help listeners evaluate whether on-device ML applications are suitable for their specific needs. He also offers insight into choosing LLMs, the impact of new specialized hardware on performance and capability, and how current advances in ML are shaping the next generation of applications.This episode highlights a core goal of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast: fostering dialogue between technology researchers and humanitarian practitioners. As AI and ML capabilities scale rapidly, this cross-sector engagement is crucial for mapping new technical advances to the unique operational, privacy, and resource constraints of the humanitarian field.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/cole-leng-on-the-state-and-future
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Neha Bajwa, Vice President of Product Marketing at Neo4j, joins Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to discuss Neo4j’s major plans to support agentic AI systems that will directly benefit nonprofits and humanitarian organizations. Neo4j is the world’s leading graph intelligence platform for AI systems, and the company’s two new tools, Neo4j Aura Agent and the Model Context Protocol Server for Neo4j, will address critical development obstacles and help organizations rapidly build, test, and deploy AI agents. They also discuss Neo4j’s Graphs for Good program and Neo4j’s upcoming “NODES” developer conference, which is the biggest graph community gathering dedicated to applications, data intelligence, knowledge graphs, and AI.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/neha-bajwa-from-neo4j-unveils-new
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Lindsey Moore, Founder and CEO of DevelopMetrics, joins Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to talk about agentic AI and bold new funding initiatives like Humanity AI. According to Humanity AI’s website, the coalition is co-chaired by Omidyar Network and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Its founding members include the Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Kapor Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Siegel Family Endowment, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Over five-years, the coalition plans to dedicate $500M towards making sure people and communities beyond Silicon Valley have a stake in the future of artificial intelligence establishing an AI future where people and communities can flourish.Lindsey Moore offers a grounded perspective on the current state of AI in the humanitarian sector. She observes that despite industry buzz, most organizations are not yet experimenting with agentic AI. Instead, they are focusing on more foundational challenges, such as organizing their data and building domain-specific large language models that can grasp the unique context and terminology of their work. Discussing the Humanity AI initiative, Lindsey and Brent express hope that such bold new funding can, with an informed understanding of the sector, help offset the destructive impact of recent aid funding cuts. These cuts disrupted foundational AI capacity-building that was being carried out by established organizations with deep domain experience, destroying numerous projects and dismantling teams behind them. They make a compelling case for funders to reinvest in these organizations and their important work to prevent hard-won gains from being lost and to scale their forward momentum.The conversation serves as a call to action, emphasizing that for initiatives like Humanity AI to be truly transformative, they must go beyond traditional philanthropy. This means proactively identifying and engaging with the humanitarian community's own AI leaders, reforming conventional cyclic grant solicitation and grant-making processes that too often overlook real sector innovators and builders, and boldly forming new partnerships that make them accessible and open to input, rather than insulated behind institutional firewalls.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/lindsey-moore-from-developmetrics
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community.In this flashpod, Chelsea McMurray, founder of the AI security startup Dorcha, joins Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to discuss international human rights law, AI security, and the threat landscape facing humanitarian actors. They begin with Chelsea’s background in human rights law and the recent disregard for international norms that should underpin ethical AI governance.The casual conversation then pivots to AI security and the specific threats humanitarian organizations face. Chelsea explains how her startup addresses data privacy vulnerabilities and prompt injection attacks, by giving users greater control over their personal information. Protecting such sensitive data is especially critical in the humanitarian sector, where information leaks can endanger field staff and the vulnerable populations they serve.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/chelsea-mcmurray-on-ai-security-and
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on critical topics.In this flashpod, Annie Brown, a Data Scientist with Humane Intelligence, talks about her team’s Bias Bounty program and how to get involved in an interview with Brent Phillips, Producer of Humanitarian AI Today. They discuss Humane Intelligence's work focusing on collaboratively designing and running rigorous evaluations that make AI systems more accountable, responsible, and fair, their bias bounty program and the strategy behind it as well as touch on how volunteers can get involved and launch their research.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/annie-brown-from-humane-intelligence
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this flashpod, Petya Kangalova, Technology Partnerships and Engagement Lead with Humanitarian Open Street Map joins Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast Producer, to discuss Humanitarian Open Street Map’s Technology and Innovation Working Group, its monthly working group open discussion sessions and how people can tune-in.Substack Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/petya-kangalova-introduces-humanitarian
.This project brings together three professors from the fields of engineering, policy, and international relations. Their goal is to understand how the funding cuts are affecting relationships, coordination, information sharing, and supply chains across organizations. By tracking how the aid ecosystem is adapting, the team hopes to capture lessons from this challenging period and help the humanitarian community chart a path forward. Erica and Humanitarian AI Today producer, Brent Phillips, discuss the survey in detail, how people can get involved, what the research team expects to learn, and the project's next steps.Survey Link: http://go.gwu.edu/AidTrackSubstack Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/erica-gralla-from-george-washington
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this podcast episode, Bill Greer, Co-founder of Common Space joins Senior Geospatial Data Scientist, Gijs van den Dool to discuss Common Space’s work focusing on building open-licensed, freely accessible, high-resolution earth observation satellites dedicated to humanitarian aid. They discuss the project from technical vantage points and address core problems that Common Space aims to solve. They touch on the accessibility of satellites and data for use by humanitarian organizations and how aid funding cuts, structural changes in the commercial imagery market, limited observational capacity and competition combined with the critical need for the humanitarian community to avoid overreliance on third-parties for critical services, necessitate the development of initiatives like Common Space. Brent Phillips who produces the Humanitarian AI Today podcast incorporates a new question into the mini-series, asking Bill: If you were standing in front of a bold transformative philanthropist like MacKenzie Scott, what would be your argument for funding Common Space? Bill’s answer outlines the importance of providing the humanitarian community with guaranteed access to satellite imagery.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/bill-greer-from-common-space-on-building
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this flashpod, Rich Woods, Global Fundraising Lead with Tech To The Rescue, joins Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today Producer, to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on fundraising and how Tech To The Rescue is adapting and leveraging AI while prioritizing authentic human interaction with grantmakers.They discuss Tech To The Rescue’s mission and evolution and speak in depth about how AI is challenging fundraisers. Rich emphasizes that while AI allows fundraisers to conduct deep research and personalize outreach on a massive scale, there is a significant risk of losing authenticity. Prospecting can generate vast amounts of information quickly, but the fundraiser may lack a genuine connection to the data. He stresses the importance of taking the time to "live" the research to ensure communications remain human-to-human.Looking toward systemic changes, Rich shares his hope that AI can help reform the fundraising process, which he calls a long-broken and resource-heavy system for nonprofits. Peering further into the future, Rich envisions AI applications acting as matchmakers, connecting funders and organizations with shared interests to facilitate open, valuable conversations and partnerships.Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/rich-woods-from-tech-to-the-rescue
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this flashpod, Shannon Farley, Co-founder and Executive Director of Fast Forward joins Eric Talbert, Co-founder of MedCycle Network to discuss Fast Forward’s 2025 AI for Humanity Report, which is a roadmap for harnessing AI for impact written by Fast Forward with support from Google.org.For over a decade, Fast Forward has supported social good initiatives, evolving with technology to become an important and direct accelerator of AI adoption in the social sector. Drawing upon its experience, the 2025 AI for Humanity report shows how nonprofits are using AI to transform lives and offers a roadmap for how to build on these successes responsibly. However, while AI has been able to create incredible efficiencies and opportunities, it also comes with new costs. The report reveals that a lack of funding is the most common obstacle for nonprofits, often preventing them from hiring the specialized tech experts they need to move uses of AI forward. Shannon emphasizes that philanthropy can directly address this gap. Even modest budget increases allow nonprofits to dramatically expand their reach, meaning an investment in a nonprofit's AI talent and infrastructure is a direct investment in scaling social impact.Substack Notes: https://open.substack.com/pub/humanitarianaitoday/p/shannon-farley-on-fast-forwards-2025?r=e9cbk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this flashpod, Eric Talbert, Co-founder of MedCycle Network joins Humanitarian AI Today host Brent Phillips to discuss Eric’s background in human rights, supply and logistics, MedCycle’s work, their partnership with the Hellman Foundation and ways MedCycle is experimenting with artificial intelligence.MedCycle Network facilitates the collection of donated, high-quality surplus medical supplies and equipment so they can be distributed to local safety net clinics. Eric and Brent discuss challenges that organizations like MedCycle and similar organizations like MedShare and Partners for World Health share around working with hospitals and companies to prevent medical supplies from being discarded that could otherwise be donated to needy healthcare providers struggling to care for their communities. They talk how AI-powered decentralized surplus supplies ecosystems can impact and inform choices made around the trash barrel in real-time, to redirect usable supplies to clinics in need on an item-by-item basis.Substack Notes: https://open.substack.com/pub/humanitarianaitoday/p/eric-talbert-from-medcycle-networks?r=e9cbk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this episode, Philippe Stoll, Senior "Techplomacy" Delegate with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), joins Humanitarian AI Today host Brent Phillips to discuss the complex issues that digital technologies create for humanitarian organizations and for people affected by conflict from an IT perspective.They discuss the growing pressure on organizations to experiment with AI, highlighting the significant backend IT effort required to safely deploy and maintain these systems. This deployment introduces new operational and security risks, demanding a highly cautious and ethical "do-no-harm" approach to protect vulnerable populations. Stoll also explains how the ICRC collaborates with academia to help evaluate new applications and find solutions to complex problems. Philippe closes with a call for greater cross-disciplinary collaboration, urging experts from humanitarian, academic, and technology sectors to engage with one another to better understand each other's perspectives.Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/philippe-stoll-on-ai-techplomacy
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.On this Voices flashpod, Perry Hewitt, Chief Strategy Officer at Data.org joins Humanitarian AI Today podcast host Brent Phillips to discuss Data.org’s role in supporting the social impact community’s transition into digital and its transition now into data and AI, and Data.org’s new report ‘Accelerate What’s Possible’ - a roadmap for how data and AI can be used innovatively and intentionally to drive social impact. They also touch on Data.org’s Activate AI: Economic Opportunity Challenge, their partnership with Zoom and the next Accelerate conference taking place in June 2026 in Bogotá, Colombia on the Javeriana University campus.Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/perry-hewitt-from-dataorg-on-accelerating
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence. In this Voices flashpod, Pam Boiros, a Founding Member of Women Applying AI speaks with Sandra Uwantege Hart, a Strategist focusing on Inclusive Innovation and Humanitarian Action from PoliSync, and Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer, about the launch of Women Applying AI, a free membership-driven community bringing more women into the field of Artificial Intelligence at all levels of experience. They touch on how AI can empower women, particularly non-technical female founders who can use AI to tackle business, life or world problems. They discuss the AI gender gap, the need for supportive initiatives and mentors for women, and the ways AI can empower female innovators. They also discuss Boston AI Week and touch on MIT’s project NANDA.Notes: https://open.substack.com/pub/humanitarianaitoday/p/pam-boiros-on-women-advancing-ai?r=e9cbk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence.In this Voices flashpod, Technology Strategist Sandra Uwantege Hart from PoliSync joins Humanitarian AI Today podcast host Brent Phillips to explore inclusive uses of emerging technologies like AI in humanitarian action.Their conversation covers PoliSync’s work bringing technical experts together to explore emerging issues in humanitarian aid, the use of AI to empower local organizations and startups, and the broader convergence of technologies we’re seeing today. Recorded against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly, they also examine the state of the humanitarian sector and the pressure on large international agencies to innovate for greater efficiency. Sandra closes the discussion with a call for improving digital access and literacy to help people help themselves, warning that old practices could perpetuate inequality if the sector doesn't engage correctly with new technology.Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/sandra-hart-from-polisync-on-engaging
Voices is a new series of bite-sized interviews produced by Humanitarian AI Today. Every day we pass the mic to a new voice from the humanitarian AI community to hear about new projects, research and advancements shaping our field.In this pilot episode of Voices, Suzy Madigan speaks with the podcast's producer about her new work supporting the CDAC Network (Communicating with Disaster-Affected Communities). Against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly, they also discuss how aid cuts and competition for funds are driving aid agencies to seek out AI ‘efficiencies’, creating new risks for humanitarian organizations and communities unless effective safeguards are put in place.The Machine Race: https://themachinerace.substack.com/Episode notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/suzy-madigan-on-ai-aid-reform
This 100th Humanitarian AI Today episode focuses on blind spots in AI safety and aligning AI with International Humanitarian Law. Guest host, Andre Heller, Director of Signpost at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), speaks with Sergio Coronado, Chief Information Officer with NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), about important research that he is heading at the Luxembourg Tech School studying “blind spots” in AI safety at the intersection of artificial intelligence and International Humanitarian Law (IHL).Dr. Coronado speaks in detail about his team's groundbreaking research, which tested leading AI models against codified rules of humanitarian law. The conversation delves into the chilling discovery that while models refuse obviously harmful requests about 90% of the time, they can still for example be prompted to generate malicious code for targeting civilian infrastructure like hospitals, contrary to IHL.This dialogue moves beyond identifying the problem to explore tangible solutions, highlighting how simple interventions can dramatically improve AI's adherence to legal principles. It serves as a powerful call to action for the humanitarian and technology communities to bridge this dangerous gap and champion the development of AI that is not just powerful, but principled and fundamentally law-adherent.Interview Notes: https://medium.com/humanitarian-ai-today/sergio-coronado-on-blind-spots-in-ai-safety-and-international-humanitarian-law-40b64590a119
In a world where AI-powered question answering interfaces and AI agents are becoming the new informational gatekeepers, how can humanitarian organizations adapt their communications strategies to stay visible, credible, and prominent?In this episode of Humanitarian AI Today, guest host Roderick Besseling, Head of the Data and Analytics Unit at the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaks with Matthew Brown from Profound, a startup that helps companies track, control, and optimize their marketing and communications content for the agentic internet.Joined by Lucy Hall, a Data and Evidence Specialist from Save the Children's Humanitarian Leadership Academy and Brent Phillips, Roderick and Matt discuss a critical challenge facing the humanitarian sector caused by artificial intelligence upending the world of search, simultaneously disrupting the industry and transforming the very nature of how we access information. This disruption forces a pivotal choice: organizations must adapt their communication strategies, or risk becoming invisible to the donors and communities they serve.Matt explains how Profound helps companies and organizations analyze their "AI visibility" by tracking how, when, and in what context their brand is mentioned by question-answering interfaces like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. He explains how Answer or Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO) works and how Profound can help organizations learn to generate the high-quality, semantically rich, and well-structured content that AI agents favor, ensuring that their communications are not just seen, but are recognized as trustworthy and reliable.The conversation also explores how AEO can support the localization agenda within the humanitarian sector. Matt argues that this technological shift can "level-up the playing field," giving local and grassroots organizations a better chance at visibility. Because AEO prioritizes well-structured, helpful content over large budgets and traditional SEO tactics, smaller organizations with less resources have a new opportunity to be discovered, ensuring their vital work is visible to donors and partners from the community level all the way up to large UN agencies.Episode notes: https://medium.com/humanitarian-ai-today/matthew-brown-from-profound-on-agentic-search-engine-optimization-aeo-for-humanitarian-75ba0e6560c6
In this episode of Humanitarian AI Today, guest host Doug Smith, Acting CEO of Data Friendly Space, speaks with Pradyumna Chari, a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Media Lab about Project NANDA. This initiative is building the foundational layer for an internet of AI agents through a broad coalition of academic institutions, major technology corporations, specialized AI startups, and the open-source community.Pradyumna explains how components like the NANDA Index create a "handshake layer" for intelligent agents to discover, coordinate, and transact with each other. This system is designed to shape the future of knowledge sharing, enabling agents to transact in privacy-preserving "intelligence" and "insights" rather than raw data. Doug and Pradyumna explore how this unlocks the potential for a "mesh" of interconnected agents to revolutionize humanitarian response.With this technology in a formative stage—much like the early World Wide Web—the humanitarian community has a critical opportunity to help shape its infrastructure. Tune in to learn how your organization can get involved and ensure this powerful new ecosystem is built to meet humanitarian needs from the ground up.Episode notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.medium.com/pradyumna-chari-introduces-project-nanda-to-humanitarian-organizations-333478f5f049
Humanitarian AI Today, guest host Mala Kumar, Head of Impact at Humane Intelligence, sits down with Andre Heller, Director of Signpost at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). They discuss Signpost's recent research paper on piloting an "information assistant," detailing the technical architecture, evaluation methods, and lessons learned from the project The conversation also addresses the significant challenges facing the sector, including a funding crisis that has impacted the pace, scale, and scope of critical research being carried out across the humanitarian community advancing humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.In the midst of this crisis and the explosive growth of AI, Andre and Mala emphasize the need for more rigorous, scientific, and collaborative approaches to AI development and evaluation. They speak in detail about open source AI and what it means to the humanitarian community. And Mala explains how her organization, Humane Intelligence, is working to professionalize AI evaluation by creating a community of practice around fair and representative algorithmic auditing. She describes their work in red teaming, conducting "bias bounties," and the future development of open-source "evaluation cards" to make evaluation methodologies more transparent and reusable.Episode notes: https://medium.com/humanitarian-ai-today/andre-heller-and-mala-kumar-discuss-signposts-pilot-ai-assistant-903b5b8ab787
On this episode of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast, Blaise Robert, Global AI Advisor for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), joins producer Brent Phillips to discuss his takeaways from the AI for Good Summit, specifically the need for more meaningful collaboration around artificial intelligence. Blaise observes that organizations are still duplicating their efforts to a large degree and could move faster by better sharing their lessons learned. He explores what it would take to elevate collaboration to the next level and truly integrate it into daily work. Tune in to hear his call to action for the humanitarian community: to be open about what works, what doesn't, and the hurdles along the way, so that successes can be shared by all.The conversation also touches on several other critical areas. Blaise details the ICRC's practical AI projects and how the ICRC is acting on its "responsibility to be more collaborative" by publicly publishing its AI policy and technology strategy as a step toward greater transparency. This approach is vital for turning the vast knowledge accumulated across the sector into actionable intelligence, ensuring that lessons learned from one project can inform the design of the next. He addresses the serious concerns around "digital harm," the ethics of data used to train AI models, and the use of AI in warfare, including autonomous weapons and military decision support. Finally, he discusses the careful balance the ICRC must strike in its relationships with major tech companies to maintain its core principles of independence and neutrality.Blaise and Brent also discuss emerging AI-powered search tools like Perplexity's new browser, Comet, and the use of large language models to make internal knowledge more accessible. While Roberts acknowledges the "large potential" for such tools in transforming tasks like project evaluation, he also stresses that they must be framed within strong policy and governance frameworks to ensure proper human oversight and responsible use.Episode notes and transcript: https://medium.com/humanitarian-ai-today/beyond-the-summit-a-push-for-real-ai-collaboration-from-blaise-robert-362ff41bb9d3
Giulio Coppi, Senior Humanitarian Officer at Access Now, an organization that fights for human rights in the digital age, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Brent Phillips. They discuss protecting digital rights in situations of conflict and violence and critically examine ethical dilemmas facing the humanitarian community surrounding the collection and use of data and applications of AI.Giulio and Brent discuss data sharing, information integrity, the role of private tech in humanitarian response, public-private sector engagement, corporate commitment to human rights and the involvement of AI companies in building surveillance and defense verticals during a time when human and digital rights are being dangerously undermined and attacked by state and non-state actors.Interview notes: https://medium.com/humanitarian-ai-today/giulio-coppi-on-defending-digital-and-human-rights-in-the-ai-age-325a44b818b3
How can humanitarian organizations harness the power of AI to deliver critical healthcare when the technology is advancing faster than ever, but essential aid funding is being cut? Aral Sürmeli, Executive Director at HERA Digital Health, discusses this question with Humanitarian AI Today guest host and podcast producer Brent Phillips, sharing insights and lessons from his team's frontline experiments with AI. Aral and Brent also discuss the AI for Good Summit, explainable AI and AI research.
On this special short episode of Humanitarian AI Today, guest host Brent Phillips sits down with Tigmanshu Bhatnagar, a lecturer at University College London (UCL), and Hamdan Albishi, a UCL MSc student in AI for Sustainable Development. Tigmanshu and Hamdan discuss a toolkit they are developing, designed to empower non-technical humanitarian actors to build their own ethical AI projects. They walk through the toolkit's four-phase process—Reflection, Scoping, Feasibility Assessment, and Development—which guides users from an initial idea to a simulated, ethically-sound AI project without needing deep technical expertise.Toolkit users define a problem, identify beneficiaries, and consider potential unintended harm. The tool presents existing use cases and projects in the same problem area to educate the user. The toolkit helps users assess project feasibility based on resources and regulations. It can also suggest publicly available humanitarian datasets and helps check them for completeness and bias to avoid unintended harm. The tool suggests appropriate technical solutions, generates a project with embedded ethical guardrails, and runs it in a simulated environment to validate its accuracy and impact before real-world deploymentThis initiative emerged from a UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH) and Elrha-funded project, which found that humanitarian organizations, despite their commitment, faced a steep learning curve in creating tangible AI solutions. The toolkit addresses AI adoption challenges and aims to help humanitarian actors develop responsible AI projects for users, regardless of their technical background.
André Heller, Director of Signpost, led by the International Rescue Committee, updates Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer Brent Phillips on Signpost’s latest AI publications and research findings. André and Brent discuss a new Signpost paper covering their work piloting agentic AI and client-facing applications and touch on funding-connected complications caused by the aid funding crisis. This short episode was recorded to lay groundwork prior to recording a more formal interview featuring André and Mala Kumar, Head of Impact with Humane Intelligence, covering Signpost’s latest work in greater detail.
Till Trojer, AI Officer at HEKS/EPER (Swiss Church Aid), joins Humanitarian AI Today guest host Rory Crew, Technical Advisor on Data and Digitalization with the CALP Network which works on increasing the quality, quantity, and impact of humanitarian cash and voucher assistance, to discuss how mid-sized aid organizations are developing and implementing their AI strategies, and the impact of the aid funding crisis on the sector.Till's role at HEKS/EPER involves helping the organization use AI responsibly, building trust, and ensuring ethical standards by understanding the context and listening to the concerns and needs of teams. Till provided insights into HEKS/EPER’s AI approach, explaining how AI is integrated into their broader digital transformation strategy rather than being treated as a separate entity. He also shared his views on AI as a catalyst for deeper discussions about existing systems, infrastructure, and data hosting dependencies, prompting a critical re-evaluation of reliance on big tech companies.Rory highlighted the timely nature of the conversation, as both cash assistance and AI offer the potential for greater efficiency—a desperate need for the sector amidst calls to do more with less. Both guests emphasized the importance of ensuring that AI solutions are grounded in the communities they serve and avoid the "graveyard of humanitarian pilots" by planning for sustainability and community buy-in from the outset. Ultimately, their vision for futuristic AI centers on systems that prioritize ethics, accountability, and empowerment, refusing unethical tasks and ensuring that communities remain in the driving seat of their own development.
On this special Humanitarian AI Today episode, focusing on assessing evidence on the effectiveness of humanitarian AI use cases, Alexandra Pittman, CEO of Impact Mapper, Suzy Madigan, Responsible AI Lead with Care International, Gary Forster, CEO of Publish What You Fund, and Linda Raftree and Quito Tsui from the MERL Tech initiative discuss challenges associated with assessing the effectiveness of humanitarian aid activities and activities incorporating applications of artificial intelligence.The discussion touches on challenges associated with collecting, mapping, measuring and assessing data on humanitarian needs and aid activities and activities incorporating uses of AI, and on fundamental questions surrounding crisis contexts, stakeholder engagement, operations, reporting, data transparency, uses of technology and AI, and limits on what the sector can actually deliver around impact.This podcast panel discussion was originally recorded in 2024 to help inform an accompanying discussion focusing on real-world AI use cases and their impact on humanitarian action co-produced by Humanitarian AI Today, the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and Elrha for a special six-part panel discussion series critically examining different aspects of humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
In this short Humanitarian AI Today podcast episode Valentine Pistorozzi speaks with Brent Phillips about Boldcode, new projects in the pipeline, and changes in the way that AI applications are being built. Brent and Valentine speak in detail about Boldcode’s https://reporterai.org/ project and about technical aspects of humanitarian AI applications. This interview was recorded as a test in November 2024 to experiment with a short 15 minute interview format for a special series of new Humanitarian AI Today podcast episodes to be published on Mondays.
Luke Marsden, CEO of HelixML, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer Brent Phillips about how generative AI has evolved since early language models like BERT were introduced and applications like ChatGPT captured widespread popular interest in artificial intelligence, including across the humanitarian community. Luke traces advances in large language models and shares his views on where we are today and where the future of generative AI and the uses of large language models are headed. Luke also touches on top-down pressure on engineering teams to leverage AI, HelixML’s involvement in helping companies deploy large language models locally on their own infrastructure, and Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) which standardizes how AI models connect with different data sources and tools, as well as the future of MLOps.
Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Schroeder speak with Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer, about the New Commons Challenge (https://newcommons.ai/) focusing advancing AI for public good through data commons. Dr. Stefaan G. Verhulst is an expert in using data and technology for social impact. He is the Co-Founder of several research organizations including the Governance Laboratory (GovLab) at New York University and The DataTank based in Brussels. Dr. Andrew Schroeder is the Vice President of Research and Analysis for Direct Relief and the Co-Director of CrisisReady.The Open Data Policy Lab, a collaboration between The GovLab and Microsoft, launched the New Commons Challenge initiative to advance the responsible re-use of data for AI-driven solutions that enhance local decision-making and humanitarian response. The Challenge will award two winning institutions $100,000 each to develop data commons that fuel responsible AI innovation in these critical areas. The Challenge builds on the Open Data Policy Lab’s recent report, “Blueprint to Unlock New Data Commons for AI,” which advocates for creating collaboratively governed data ecosystems that support responsible AI development. The Challenge is backed by leading institutions committed to ethical AI and open data. Partners include Direct Relief / CrisisReady, and Harvard Law School Library, and UNESCO as international observer, which will provide subject-matter expertise and evaluation support.Stefaan, Andrew and Brent discuss the New Commons Challenges in detail and touch on data commons for AI, disaster relief and local decision making, AI governance, data sharing architectures and data re-use, advances in artificial intelligence and human-AI interaction, and the intersection of collective intelligence and artificial intelligence.
On this episode of Humanitarian AI Today, Ali Al Mokdad, a seasoned humanitarian leader with extensive field and headquarters experience, offers a very personal perspective on the evolving landscape of humanitarian aid, particularly in the context of the current and hugely destructive aid funding crisis. Brant Phillips, producer of the podcast, and Ali speak in depth about Ali’s writing and analysis on the challenges of bureaucracy and inefficiency in the humanitarian sector, and the need to incrementally optimize processes and strategies. They also discuss in detail a tribute that Ali wrote in response to the crisis to those who kept going when the systems went silent, entitled: “The World Didn’t Fall When Help Left.” The tribute which reads like a poem can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7316798459745853441/Ali weaves together powerful narratives of human resilience and solidarity with a critical examination of aid operations and artificial intelligence's potential to reshape the sector. The interview highlights the enduring strength of local communities, showcasing examples of individuals and groups rallying to support each other in the face of adversity, filling gaps when traditional aid structures falter due to funding shortfalls and other systemic challenges.The interview is part of a new special series of short episodes published on Mondays, providing a broader range of individuals with opportunities to talk about their work, share their views on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence and discuss developments shaping the humanitarian and technology sectors.
Suzy Madigan, Founder of The Machine Race and Senior Humanitarian Advisor at CARE International, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today podcast Producer, Brent Phillips, about her blog series on AI and society.In this bite-sized episode, they chat through the wide range of ideas explored in The Machine Race blog — from how AI intersects with politics, culture, and philosophy, to its social impact and safety. They also discuss the role of AI in humanitarian operations in the context of aid cuts and what this means for vulnerable communities.This is the first in a HAI mini-series showcasing newsletters and podcasts on AI helping to keep humanitarians informed and connected across communities of practice. Navigate to The Machine Race by Suzy Madigan on Medium and hit the envelope icon to subscribe to new articles: https://medium.com/@themachinerace
Kai Hopkins, Head of Research Initiatives with Elrha, summarizes hard dilemmas facing the humanitarian and development sectors following massive cuts in government funding. Offering takeaways from Humanitarian Networking and Partnerships Week in Geneva and discussions with other attendees, Kai and Brent discuss four key questions with no easy answers that as a sector we need to consider in response to funding cuts, and discuss the impact of cuts on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence. Kai shares how his team is responding to the crisis and calls for a fundamental shift in how the humanitarian sector approaches partnerships, emphasizing inclusivity, collaboration, and a willingness to embrace new actors and models.This episode is part of a short interview series, geared for publishing on Mondays, providing individuals with opportunities to briefly talk about their work and share their views on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence or to talk about developments shaping the humanitarian and technology sectors.
Payal Dalal, Executive Vice President of Global Programs at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, and Deval Sanghavi, Co-founder and Partner at Dasra, speak with Aleks Berditchevskaia, Principal Researcher, Nesta Centre for Collective Intelligence Design, about the Center’s Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge, a global call for AI solutions to accelerate inclusion and economic empowerment. Dasra is a funding partner of the AI Challenge, and Dasra’s other co-founder, Neera Nundy, participated as a judge for the Challenge. Done in partnership with data.org, the winners were announced in December 2024: https://newsroom.mastercard.com/news/press/2024/december/mastercard-center-for-inclusive-growth-and-data-org-announce-ai2ai-challenge-awardees/In this Humanitarian AI Today podcast episode, guest hosted by Aleks Berditchevskaia, Payal and Deval speak in depth about the challenge, this year’s five winners, and share their takeaways and learnings from the challenge and global submission process. Payal and Deval emphasize the importance of bringing partners together to organize and support these kinds of challenges and accelerators, which help source innovations and advance participatory approaches to technology development. They highlight the speed at which the technology sector is advancing and offer advice on keeping pace with, and adapting to, challenges and opportunities that are emerging.More about the Center’s work and its upcoming Global Inclusive Growth Summit, taking place on April 24th in Washington D.C., can be found here: https://globalinclusivegrowthsummit.com/
The UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH), Elrha, and Humanitarian AI Today bring panelists together to discuss the subject of AI governance in connection with humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.Representing the humanitarian, academic, regulatory and private sectors, Eugenia Olliaro, former Responsible Data for Children Lead at UNICEF, Stefaan Verhulst, Co-founder of NYU’s GovLab, and Meeri Haataja, CEO of Saidot, provide their views and insight on AI governance and on AI governance in humanitarian action.Next, representing the technology and private sectors, Agata Ferretti, AI an Data Governance Expert with IBM, and Aparna Bhushan, Data Governance and Digital Policy Advisor, discuss how initiatives like the AI Alliance are approaching AI governance and provide unique insight on the role of open-source AI in promoting transparency and trust, and the importance of addressing the digital divide and ensuring that AI works for everyone.Panelists explain why it’s important for humanitarian actors to become aware of broader governance conversations connected with AI. They help to outline what AI governance is about, they share how their different teams are approaching AI governance and touch on the challenges of regulating and deploying AI and the challenges of connecting with and engaging communities in humanitarian settings, and the need for adaptive and context-aware governance approaches, real accountability, and global inclusivity in AI policy and governance.Eugenia, Meeri, Stefaan, Agata, and Aparna provide valuable insight on AI governance from their different vantage points and join together in advocating for greater engagement around AI governance. The podcast episode, guest-hosted by Brent Phillips from Humanitarian AI Today, is part of a six-part panel discussion series sponsored and produced by Humanitarian AI Today in collaboration with the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH) and Elrha, with funding from UK International Development from the UK government. The series examines critical aspects of humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.More information about this episode, its focus, and upcoming discussions can be found by subscribing to the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and Elrha's new AI newsletter: http://ukhih.org/newsletter.
The UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH), Elrha, and Humanitarian AI Today have brought together a panel to discuss the subject of humanitarian principles with an emphasis on discussing the principles in connection with uses of artificial intelligence in humanitarian action.Aleks Berditchevskaia, Principal Researcher, Nesta Centre for Collective Intelligence Design; Marc DuBois, Independent Researcher and Consultant in humanitarian sector; Olivier Mills, Founder of Baobab Tech; and Brent Phillips, Producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast, introduce listeners to the subject of humanitarian principles and summarize key principles underpinning humanitarian action. Panelists share key takeaways on humanitarian principles from their work, discussing lessons learned and risks associated with neglecting core humanitarian principles in AI use in the face of explosive advances in AI and whole landscape changes in human-machine interaction that we’re seeing today, and then explore how to align AI initiatives with humanitarian values.For more information on this episode and the rest of UKHIH and Elrha’s six-part panel discussion series, subscribe to their new AI newsletter here: http://ukhih.org/newsletter.
The UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH), Elrha, and Humanitarian AI Today have brought together a panel to critically assess evidence from real-world AI use cases and their impact on humanitarian action, while exploring approaches to learning and evidence-building.In this episode, Zineb Bhaby, AI Lead at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Zita Lengyel-Wang, Matching Manager at Tech to the Rescue, and Thomas Byrnes, Humanitarian and Social Protection Consultant, join Maria Kett, Professor of Humanitarianism and Social Inclusion, and Tigmanshu Bhatnagar, Lecturer in Global Disability Innovation, from University College London. Hosted by Brent Phillips, Producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast. As we delve into Zineb, Zita, and Thomas’ perspectives on AI applications in humanitarian contexts, they highlight challenges faced when implementing and testing these tools, and their insights shed light on the complexities of gathering evidence to assess AI’s impact on humanitarian action. Maria and Tigmanshu then summarize recent key research findings, providing our listeners with a deeper understanding of the broader implications of their work, supported by UKHIH and Elrha. To close, the panelists share key takeaways on evaluating evidence from AI use cases, discussing lessons learned and offering actionable recommendations for improving evidence-building and enhancing the rollout of AI applications in the humanitarian sector. For more information on this episode and the rest of UKHIH and Elrha’s six-part panel discussion series, subscribe to their new AI newsletter here: http://ukhih.org/newsletter.
Abdallah El Ali, a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher with a background in cognitive science discusses trustworthy AI, explainability and transparency with Ahmad Tafti from the University of Pittsburgh and Humanitarian AI Today’s Producer, Brent Phillips.Dr. Abdallah El Ali, a Research Scientist at the Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) who is also an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University and Dr. Ahmad Tafti, Director of the Pitt HexAI Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and Interim Director of Scientific Affairs with Pitt’s Computational Pathology and AI Center of Excellence (CPACE) and head of AI at Youki GmbH provide insight to individuals interested in humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence on human-computer interaction, information transparency and challenges associated with human cognition, attention, learning and information overload. The discussion touches on emerging transparency regulations governing uses of AI systems, the impact of AI generated content on our lives and how humans process transparency information on uses of AI and data, AI generated content and on the functioning of AI algorithms. The discussion is especially valuable for humanitarian actors considering information disclosure strategies on uses and risks associated with AI.The episode builds on discussions on AI transparency launched by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH) and Elrha, and combines insight gained from research into health AI applications and explainability.
In this episode, the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH), Elrha, and Humanitarian AI Today bring panelists together to critically examine the colonial approach in the rollout of AI applications, including the extraction of data from vulnerable groups without adequate representation or input.Shaza Alrihawi, Researcher, Human Rights Advocate, and Consultant specializing in working with refugees at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories; Shruti Viswanathan, an Independent Consultant, Data Governance and Digital Inclusion; Olubayo Adekanmbi, CEO and Co-founder of EqualyzAI and CEO and Founder of Data Science Nigeria; and Helen McElhinney, Executive Director with the CDAC Network, join Brent Phillips, Producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast, to discuss the rollout of AI applications, the extraction of data from vulnerable groups without adequate representation or input, key challenges in engaging affected populations and communities on the topic of AI and how we can roll out AI technologies in humanitarian work in an ethical and impactful manner.This episode is part of a six-part panel discussion series produced by Humanitarian AI Today in collaboration with the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and Elrha, with funding from UK International Development from the UK Government. More information about this episode and details about the rest of the series can be found by subscribing to the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and Elrha's new AI newsletter: http://ukhih.org/newsletter.
The UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH), Elrha, and Humanitarian AI Today bring panelists together to discuss transparency and strategies for improving transparency and accountability in AI implementations.Michael Hind, Distinguished Research Staff Member at IBM Research; Shadrock Roberts, Director of Global Data Protection & Privacy at Mercy Corps; Scott Turnbull, Chief Technology Officer at Data Friendly Space; Liam Nicoll, Signpost Product Lead at Signpost AI Lab; and Sarah Spencer, a consultant who regularly speaks on humanitarian operations and applications of artificial intelligence, contribute their insights on transparency and ways of improving transparency and accountability in AI implementations. Touching on the existing landscape of AI initiatives within the humanitarian sector, key players, and what transparency means broadly and in practice, their views connect the humanitarian and technology communities and provide valuable insight into why transparency is crucial for building trust in AI systems and engaging stakeholders in developing and leveraging uses of AI for good.The panel discussion, guest hosted by Brent Phillips from Humanitarian AI Today, mixes input on AI systems, technical information disclosure, AI governance and regulation, and how humanitarian organizations are approaching developing, testing and deploying safe, responsible and trustworthy AI applications that are transparent and accountable to end users. Panelists each share their views on ways of improving transparency and offer ideas on directions to expand the transparency conversation. In closing, panelists provide a strong case for greater information sharing on AI use cases and greater inclusivity around transparency throughout the AI building and deployment process.This episode is part of a six-part panel discussion series sponsored and produced by Humanitarian AI Today in collaboration with the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH) and Elrha, with funding from UK International Development from the UK government. More information about this episode, its focus and upcoming discussions can be found by subscribing to the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and Elrha's new AI newsletter: http://ukhih.org/newsletter.
Lindsey Moore, Founder and CEO of DevelopMetrics, discusses her team’s upcoming AI for Development Summit and provides an update on DevelopMetric’s current work helping humanitarian organizations develop and test AI applications. Lindsey and Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer, Brent Phillips, touch on advancements in AI and the state of humanitarian AI, the importance of humanitarian organizations and technology companies participating in technical working groups, the need for funding for critical humanitarian AI research and development and importantly the need for funding to bridge the digital divide and ensure diverse representation in AI models particularly for underrepresented communities, and touch on AI transparency, Signpost’s new AI Lab, UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub projects and other subjects.
Sian White, Director of the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub; Dan Amias, Senior Innovation Learning Advisor at Elrha; and Daniela Weber, Director of NetHope’s Center for the Digital Nonprofit, discuss the growing importance of AI in the humanitarian sector and introduce Elrha and UKHIH’s new AI newsletter.Joining Brent Phillips of Humanitarian AI Today, they highlight recent AI initiatives by UKHIH, Elrha, and NetHope, emphasizing their collaborative role in advancing humanitarian efforts. They also share insights from their AI learning journeys, key takeaways, and ongoing challenges in harnessing AI for humanitarian impact.
Karin Maasel and Doug Smith from Data Friendly Space update listeners on GANNET, a collaborative, generative AI-powered tool that DFS developed in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help humanitarian organizations access, extract, and visualize information to boost the timeliness, effectiveness, and accuracy of humanitarian responses and anticipatory action. Over three recording sessions, Karin (DFS CEO) and Doug (DFS Chief of Staff) answer a broad range of questions covering their team’s work and new tools, the evolving humanitarian AI landscape and AI-powered tools being developed by other humanitarian initiatives, trusted data sources and open data sharing frameworks, and the importance of domain specific AI model training, human-centered design and responsible AI development as well as the need for greater cross-sector collaboration.
Vanessa Parli, Director of Research Programs at Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), speaks with Allison Cohen, Senior Applied AI Project Manager at Mila. This episode was recorded for both the Humanitarian AI Today podcast and The World We Are Building podcast, which seek to broaden the conversation around artificial intelligence. Vanessa and Allison discuss how HAI reviews and selects AI research projects to support based on their technical soundness, potential impact, ethical considerations, and alignment with HAI's goals and values.Vanessa emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, which fosters a holistic approach to AI development. She also discusses the role of ethics in AI development and the challenges of bridging the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world applications, highlighting the importance of considering the potential impact of AI on society. This interview was recorded to provide humanitarian organizations, grantmakers and others with insights into how leading AI institutes handle research project cultivation and evaluation.
In this episode of Humanitarian AI Today, Sarah Spencer, a consultant for the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub, interviews Kate Behncken, Corporate VP and Global Head of Microsoft Philanthropies. Kate discusses how Microsoft Philanthropies is harnessing AI to drive digital inclusion and empower nonprofits and communities worldwide. She shares details on her team’s work with organizations like UNICEF, IOM, and the British Heart Foundation, highlighting how AI is being leveraged to address pressing global challenges. The conversation also explores the ethical challenges of AI, focusing on responsible AI development, balancing humanitarian principles with AI ethics, privacy, and security concerns, and emphasizing the importance of inclusivity in AI development to avoid marginalizing vulnerable communities. Tune in to learn how AI is shaping the future of humanitarian work and how Microsoft is driving social impact across the globe.
Rolf Kleef, former CTO and Senior IATI Consultant with Data4Development, shares his views on Signpost’s new AI Lab and on the integration of AI into humanitarian operations with Humanitarian AI Today’s podcast producer Brent Phillips. Rolf specializes in helping civil society initiatives with online collaboration, transparency, open data sharing, algorithms, and ethical AI. Brent and Rolf use the interview to discuss the International Aid Transparency Initiative and run through a list of questions for Humanitarian AI Today Live, the podcast’s new video channel. Rolf answers questions on the mapping of humanitarian AI initiatives, AI powered chatbots, how Signpost’s AI Lab aims to collaborate with humanitarian organizations, AI governance and how the humanitarian community should approach improving transparency and accountability around AI, AI learning goals, open data sharing in the AI age and other subjects of interest to staff from humanitarian organizations interested in humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
Payal Dalal, Executive Vice President of Global Programs at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (the Center), speaks with Aleks Berditchevskaia, Principal Researcher, Nesta Centre for Collective Intelligence Design, about the Center’s data science work and commitment to advancing sustainable economic growth. Payal and Aleks look at real-life applications of data science and AI to address real-world challenges and drive social impact, discuss ways to ensure emergent technologies such as AI are inclusive and equitable, and examine how a participatory AI framework involving diverse voices and data in the development of AI tools can mitigate bias and maximize the positive potential of these tools to close existing inequities. They also discussed the Center’s Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Inclusion Challenge, a global call for AI solutions to accelerate inclusion and economic empowerment. In partnership with data.org, the Challenge is accepting submissions through July 18, 2024. Link to the application: https://data.org/initiatives/challenges/artificial-intelligence-to-accelerate-inclusion-challenge/ Aleks Berditchevskaia is the Principal Researcher working at Nesta's Centre for Collective Intelligence Design which creates new ways for communities to use technology to harness their ideas and insights, act on the problems that matter and create the futures they want.Their work on humanitarian AI is focused on collective crisis intelligence technologies. These are tools that combine localized collective intelligence from affected communities and frontline responders, and AI. Since 2021, they have pioneered participatory AI methodologies that bring affected communities and frontline responders into the designing, testing and oversight of AI systems. Their research is funded by a grant from the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH).Keep an eye out for a forthcoming Humanitarian AI Today episode that will dive deeper into Aleks' work on participatory AI and the responsible deployment of humanitarian AI technologies.
Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Schroeder speak with Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer, about Meta’s Lama Impact Grants program supporting applications of artificial intelligence for social good and a recent workshop that Meta organized for their 2024 Lama Impact Grant finalists. Stefaan, Andrew and Brent also discuss collective intelligence, large language models, data accessibility and making data AI ready, data collection and standardization initiatives geared for humanitarian actors, the impact of AI on humanitarian operations, localization, and how humanitarian actors can collaborate around advancing humanitarian AI.Dr. Stefaan G. Verhulst is an expert in using data and technology for social impact. He is the Co-Founder of several research organizations including the Governance Laboratory (GovLab) at New York University and The DataTank base in Brussels. He focuses on using advances in science and technology, including data and artificial intelligence, to improve decision-making and problem-solving. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the open-access journal Data & Policy and has served as a member of several expert groups on data and technology, including the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing and the Expert Group to Eurostat on using Private Sector data for Official Statistics. Dr. Verhulst has been recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally. He has published extensively on these topics, including several books, and has been invited to speak at international conferences, including TED and the UN World Data Forum. He is asked regularly to provide counsel on data stewardship to a variety of public and private organizations.Dr. Andrew Schroeder is the Vice President of Research and Analysis for Direct Relief. He leads Direct Relief’s work in data science, GIS, and humanitarian innovation. He has worked in a consulting and advisory capacity for the World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and World Food Programme (WFP), as well as being a member of the health data experts committee for Meta (formerly Facebook). Dr. Schroeder is the co-founder, along with colleagues at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, of CrisisReady, a research and response platform for translating private data into public good for disasters and health emergencies. He is also the co-founder and former Board President of the global nonprofit WeRobotics.org, which builds local capacity in robotics applications for humanitarian aid, development, and global health in nearly 40 countries around the world. Andrew earned his Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Analysis from New York University and his Masters of Public Policy (MPP) and certification in Science, Technology and Public Policy (STPP) from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
Lindsey Moore, CEO and Founder of DevelopMetrics, speaks with Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast Producer, about DevelopMetrics’ work helping humanitarian organizations experiment with large language models. Lindsey and Brent discuss humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence, domain specificity, large language models, model training, testing and fine tuning, data structuring, data privacy and security, sandboxing, goal and objective setting, applicational development and deployment and other subjects relevant to humanitarian organizations interested in experimenting with generative AI.
Roberto Vila-Sexto, Country Director for Ukraine with the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaks with Jakob Harbo, Country Manager for Ukraine with the Danish Red Cross. Joined by Brent Phillips, Roberto and Jakob discuss their work and roles, the scale and severity of conditions in Ukraine this Winter, humanitarian needs and operations, risks and complications humanitarian actors face in Ukraine, attacks on humanitarian facilities and their views on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence, including their views on real-world wartime humanitarian applications of AI and concerns. Closing the interview, Roberto and Jakob offer their thoughts on futuristic AI applications they would like to see developed.
Shadrock Roberts, Director of Global Data Protection, Privacy, and Ethical AI at Mercy Corps, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host, Nasim Motalebi, an Information Scientist, Researcher and co-author of a Digital Humanitarian Network / UN OCHA supported paper on “Generative AI for Humanitarians”, about data protection and privacy in the AI age and about how humanitarian organizations are experimenting with generative AI and addressing AI from legal, regulatory, ethical and responsible AI vantage points. Nasim and Shadrock also discuss developmental testing, synthetic data, data interpretation and analysis, risk reduction, chatbots and prompting. Nasim closes the interview with input on data sharing frameworks like IATI, HDX and ReliefWeb, data tagging and work ahead of humanitarian organizations in 2024 needed to advance humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
André Heller Pérache, Director of the International Rescue Committee’s Signpost project speaks with Isabella Loaiza, a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Sloan School Of Management and former Research Assistant at MIT Media Lab. Isabella and André discuss Signpost’s work responding to the informational needs of people facing crises, the program’s growth plans and how Signpost is approaching experimenting with generative AI. Isabella and André speak in detail about the importance of deploying large language models correctly and in ways that are safe and useful for vulnerable populations and broach Isabella’s research around the future of work and other topics.
Suzy Madigan, founder of ‘The Machine Race’ blog series and senior humanitarian advisor at CARE international speaks with Shivaang Sharma, PhD researcher on Humanitarian AI systems at University College London (UCL). Ahead of the UK Government’s AI Safety Summit, Suzy and Shivaang discuss some of the human rights and safety implications of AI for society globally, particularly for communities in the global south experiencing humanitarian crises, conflicts, poverty or marginalization and look at how to ensure that the design, deployment and governance of AI is inclusive and equitable, to make sure everybody can share in its potential benefits and be protected from potential harms. The discussion will help humanitarian actors understand why traditional humanitarian NGOs need to think through the implications of AI both for the societal changes it brings, and the considerations for using AI within humanitarian operations.
John Adams, former Deputy Director for Digital and Data Services with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, speaks with Roderick Besseling, Head of the Data and Analytics Unit at the Norwegian Refugee Council, about open data sharing frameworks used by humanitarian and international development organizations and their importance in the AI age. John and Roderick discuss in detail why transparency and open data sharing matters to the humanitarian community, different open data sharing frameworks, John’s involvement in helping lead and grow the the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and IATI’s emergence as a valuable source of information for artificial intelligent applications. John and Roderick also mention NetHope’s upcoming Global Summit and the importance of data standards to work around climate change. Joining the discussion, Brent Phillips added insight on IATI and uses of IATI by AI applications.
Claudia von Vacano, Executive Director of the D-Lab and the Digital Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Larissa Doroshenko, a lecturer of Communication Studies at Northeastern University and a researcher specializing in state-sponsored disinformation, and Mythili Tirumalasetty from the University of Pittsburgh’s Health and Explainable AI Research Laboratory about Berkeley’s D-Lab, the university’s brand new College of Computing, Data Science and Society and about the D-Lab’s research into hate speech. Claudia, Larissa and Mythili discuss in detail the lab’s research methodology, machine learning and natural language processing, and parallels between hate speech research and research into misinformation and disinformation and the subject of bias in healthcare.
Ximena Contla, NLP Project Manager with Data Friendly Space (DFS) discusses ChatGPT and use of large language models to support Turkey and Syria earthquake response. Guest hosted by Rishi Jha from DFS and Brent Phillips, with Nayid Orozco Bohorquez a Product Lead from DFS and Sylvan Ridderinkhof, a Data Engineer from Zimmerman, an AI data information technology company, joining the conversation, the interview touches on humanitarian emergencies, relief operations in the field, data generated by humanitarian actors, data summarization, open data sharing frameworks like IATI, Data Friendly Space’s Data Entry and Exploration Platform (DEEP), deployment of large language models by humanitarian actors, ethical AI and a range of other subjects.
Aaron Margolis, a Data Scientist researching Responsible AI and Large Language Models, speaks with Brent Phillips, producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series, and Megan DeMatteo, a journalist covering Web3, about ChatGPT. The interview is geared towards helping humanitarian actors get acquainted with emerging new conversational AI applications being developed by OpenAI, Google, Meta and others, large large language models powering them, and setting up, testing and deploying models.
Liam Nicoll, Product Lead with the International Rescue Committee’s Signpost initiative speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Alexandra Pittman, Founder of ImpactMapper, and Brent Phillips about Signpost’s work providing people with accurate, accessible and timely information in times of crisis and about open data sharing, ChatGPT and humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence. This two part interview was recorded live in NYC and then followed-up with a discussion on ChatGPT geared for humanitarian actors.
Join Humanitarian AI Today as guest host Brent Phillips sits down with Bret Kinsella, founder of Voicebot.ai and Synthedia, to delve into the latest advancements in conversational AI and voice technology. Kinsella, a leading expert in the field, will discuss the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI and its potential to revolutionize the humanitarian aid sector. Learn about the capabilities of large language machine learning models for dialogue applications, and gain insights on the direction of this technology and the steps humanitarian organizations should take to adapt and incorporate these powerful tools in their operations by 2023. This podcast is a must-listen for professionals in the humanitarian aid community seeking to stay informed on the latest developments in AI technology.
Gaurav Nemade, former Project Manager with Google who worked on the development of LaMDA, Google's large language model for dialogue applications, speaks with Christopher Hoffman from Humanity link and Megan DeMatteo, a Journalist covering Web3 about powerful new generative machine learning models. These models have dominated the news this year, spurred by OpenAI's release of ChatGPT. For humanitarian actors, Gaurav goes over how generative machine learning models work and how next-generation chatbots like ChatGPT compare to search engines. Gaurav, Christopher and Megan talk in depth about the accelerating pace of advancements in computing and the types of powerful new conversational AI applications, hybrid search engines and even more powerful machine learning models that humanitarian actors will see emerge in 2023. Gaurav, Christopher and Megan broach the growing impact of AI on the humanitarian sector, challenges and opportunities that humanitarian actors should be conscious of and how humanitarian actors can get involved and contribute to helping train, fine-tune, adapt and improve AI applications, making them suitable for use across the humanitarian community.
Kyrylo Lapko with SpivDiia and NeedsList speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Brent Phillips about Ukrainian humanitarian relief organizations, needs across Ukraine this Winter, logistics and import compliance, open data sharing, data and information sensitivity, initiatives like NeedsList and Signpost, and about humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence and new question answering applications like ChatGPT.
Gerd Buta, head of in-kind food operations in Ukraine for the World Food Program (WFP) speaks with Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Christopher Hoffman from Humanity Link about the World Food Program’s work in Ukraine, conditions on the ground this Winter, aid logistics, open data sharing and about innovative uses of technology and artificial intelligence.
Larissa Doroshenko, a Visiting Lecturer of Communication Studies at Northeastern University, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Jodi Hilton about her computational research studying disinformation and misinformation campaigns with a focus on the war in Ukraine and on the “dark side” of online media.Larissa received her doctoral degree in Communication Arts with a minor in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her current research explores how marginalized groups, ranging from racial minorities and women politicians to pro-democratic citizens in authoritarian regimes use emerging media to make their voices heard and gain power to drive change.
Scott Ciment, Senior Rule of Law Expert with the University of South Carolina Rule of Law Collaborative speaks with Theodora Gazi, a Lawyer with a PhD in Refugee Law currently with ActionAid about how technology can support efforts to increase access to justice for marginalized groups in developing countries with under-resourced justice systems and about human rights, the war in Ukraine and applications of artificial intelligence.
Heather Leson, Digital Innovation Lead with the Solferino Academy of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Jenny Paola Yela, Information Management and Data Science Officer with the IFRC speak with Theodora Gazi, a Lawyer with a PhD in Refugee Law currently with ActionAid. Heather Leson and Paola Yela discuss the Solferino Academy’s Data Playbook initiative, the IFRC’s Digital Transformation Strategy and how their teams are working with national societies to support digital transformation and crisis response. Heather and Paola also provide important feedback from national societies on digital innovation and share their thoughts on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
Preeti Adhikary, seasoned tech executive, startup advisor, emerging venture professional, and former Vice President of Marketing at Fusemachines, and Ahmad Tafti, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern Maine and Director of the HexAI Research Lab discuss the future of AI education with Mia Kossiavelou and Brent Phillips, producers of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series. Preeti and Ahmad offer their thoughts on AI education, challenges facing the field and the emerging focus on opening up AI education for all, as well as investment in AI education, the relationship between education and applications, and responsibility and ethics in AI.
Tyler Radford, Executive Director of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, speaks with Ewan Oglethorpe, Executive Director of Data Friendly Space (DFS) and co-creator of theDEEP and Brent Phillips, producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series about the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap initiative, the evolution of the team and technology, artificial intelligence in the humanitarian sector and the war and mapping in Ukraine.
The podcast was recorded in Geneva at The Humanitarian Networks & Partnerships Weeks, where both Tyler and Ewan were presenting their works to the humanitarian community. Brent joined remotely from the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine.
Laura McGorman, Director of Data for Good at Meta speaks with Andrew Schroeder and Ewan Oglethorpe about data sharing for good today and in the future in the Metaverse, the types of sophisticated datasets her team makes available to researchers, humanitarian actors and others, and how Meta is collaborating with the humanitarian community around Ukraine and around improving the use and impact of data for good. Andrew Schroeder is the VP of Research and Analysis at Direct Relief and Co-Director of CrisisReady and Ewan Oglethorpe is the Executive Director of Data Friendly Space (DFS) and co-creator of theDEEP.
Juan Lavista Ferres, Chief Scientist and Lab Director at Microsoft’s AI for Good Research Lab, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today's host Sarah Spencer about how his team is aiding NGOs by leveraging data to address a variety of global humanitarian issues, and shares his thoughts on the future of data-based solutions for increasingly complex humanitarian efforts.
Jakub Parusinski, Editor at The Fix Media, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Jodi Hilton about the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the work of Ukrainian journalists and how to support them, and about journalism and crisis reporting in the AI Age.
Allison Fine and Beth Kanter speak with Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou about their work advising nonprofits leaders on digital transformation. Allison and Beth have collaborated on books such as The Networked Nonprofit and The Smart Nonprofit and have written on Unlocking Generosity with Artificial Intelligence.
Jennifer Chan and Andrew Schroeder discuss the war in Ukraine and putting data to use to support humanitarian operations with Humanitarian AI Today guest hosts Natasha Freidus, Jean-Martin Bauer and Brent Phillips. Jennifer Chan is an Associate Professor and Director Of Global Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Andrew Schroeder, VP of Research and Analysis at Direct Relief and Co-Director of CrisisReady and Jennifer are collaborating on using human mobility data to map the displacement of refugees and internally displaced persons fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Joanna van der Merwe, a Defense Tech Fellow from The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) speaks with Sarah Spencer about the war and escalating humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, hybrid warfare and the challenges and threats humanitarian actors face in the age of AI.
Natasha Freidus, Co-founder and CEO of NeedsList speaks with Humanitarian AI Today host Mia Kossiavelou about the evolution of NeedsList, humanitarian crises, needs reporting, and about open data sharing, futuristic humanitarian AI applications and what’s holding back advances in humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
Ewan Oglethorpe, Executive Director of Data Friendly Space (DFS) and co-creator of theDEEP, speaks with Mia Kossiavelou, host of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series, about DFS and theDEEP, the Metaverse and humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
Daniel Eriksson, Chief Executive Officer of Transparency International speaks with Brent Phillips, Producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series, about Transparency International’s work combatting corruption, sustainable development and the future of transparency initiatives, corporate social responsibility, and artificial intelligence.
Ralf Südhoff, Director at Centre for Humanitarian Action (CHA), speaks with Brent Phillips, Producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series, about the German humanitarian aid community, CHA’s work, humanitarian operations, cash aid programs, localization initiatives, technology and artificial intelligence.
Colin Koop, a Design Partner with the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) speaks with Brent Phillips, Producer of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast series. Colin and Brent discuss architecture, the future of AI education and Colin’s work on MIT’s Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing building and also Colin’s design philosophy embracing complexity and harmony and bringing into balance architectural expression, science, technology, sustainability and carbon consciousness in the modern AI Age.
Jean-Martin Bauer, Senior Digital Advisor from the United Nations World Food Program speaks with Daniel Huttenlocher, the inaugural dean of MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing, board chair of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and board member of Corning Inc. and Amazon.com. Jean-Martin and Daniel discuss MIT’s new college, AI education, humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence and a new book co-written by Daniel, Eric Schmidt and Henry Kissinger called the “The Age of AI”. This insightful and cautionary book focuses on AI and our human future, topics that Jean-Martin and Sarah Spencer point out are highly relevant to humanitarian actors.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Christopher Hoffman, Managing Director of Humanity Link and Chairman of the Humanitarian Innovation Funding Committee and board member of Sawa World, about his work building partnerships between companies and humanitarian agencies, humanitarian operations, innovation and humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Jean-Martin Bauer, Senior Digital Advisor from the United Nations World Food Program speaks with Gaurav Menghani, Research Engineer from Google about efficient deep learning, on-device ML and humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Jeremy McKane with the Ocean Currency Network speaks with Ritwik Gupta, a machine learning research scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Paolo, a machine learning engineer with Global Fishing Watch, about two upcoming events: AI + HADR 2021 an Artificial Intelligence for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response workshop and the xView3 Challenge prize competition to identify the best computer vision algorithms to advance the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Mark Dalton from the United Nations speaks with Monica Lam, Professor and Faculty Director of Stanford University's Open Virtual Assistant Lab (OVAL) about her team's work and the importance of voice technology to the humanitarian community.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Vilas Dhar, the president of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a $1.5 billion 21st century philanthropy advancing artificial intelligence and data solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. A technologist, lawyer and human rights advocate, Vilas is a global thought leader on the intersection of artificial intelligence and technology in the social sector.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Mark Dalton from the United Nations speaks with Jean-Martin Bauer, a Senior Digital Advisor at the World Food Program, about WFP data collection and hunger mapping initiatives and uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Sarah Spencer and Lars Peter Nissen from ACAPS who produces the Trumanitarian podcast series interview each other and discuss humanitarian operations, humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence, data, decision making and their work and research.
Lars Peter has worked in the humanitarian field for the past 20 years and is experienced in both sudden-onset disasters and protracted crises. Lars is passionate about transforming humanitarian action and believes that unlocking the potential of collaboration is key to achieving this. He is the Director of www.acaps.org and teaches at Copenhagen University specializing in Disaster Management. Sarah Spencer, is an independent consultant and Civil Servant in the British Government. She has worked for two decades in support of communities affected by conflict, instability and disasters and is passionate about unlocking the power of frontier technologies to improve humanitarian action.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Jodi Hilton speaks with Allison Cohen, Applied Projects Lead, AI for Humanity at Mila, about Mila’s AI for Humanity program, her work, background and thoughts on AI for Good and Humanitarian AI.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Fay Schofield speaks with Jinho Choi, Sarah Fillwock and James Finch from Emory University about “Emora” their team’s Alexa Prize winning socialbot, conversational AI and humanitarian applications of socialbots and emerging digital assistants like Alexa.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Leo Frey, Deputy Head of Division at Germany's Relief Coalition (Aktion Deutschland Hilft) about Leo’s work at ADH, crisis response and using technology to improve humanitarian operations.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Steve Hellen, Senior Information Technology Director for Field Systems at Catholic Relief Services. Steve helps CRS’ programs worldwide improve their efficacy by incorporating digital tools such as mobile, data analytics, and emerging technologies like AI.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Xoán Fernández García, a consultant specializing in social innovation, technology and entrepreneurship for development, sustainability and digital transformation with years of expertise working across Latin America.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Sarah Spencer, an independent consultant and Civil Servant with the UK Department for International Development, specializing in social development, conflict related programing and providing guidance on incorporating frontier technologies, AI and machine learning into existing and planned humanitarian programming.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Valentina Pavel, Legal Researcher at the Ada Lovelace Institute about the Institute, a UK-based research and deliberative body working to ensure data and AI work for people and society.
Valentina is leading the Changing Regulations workstream of the Rethinking Data program, a project designed to change the data governance ecosystem by transforming how we talk about data through our narratives, developing people-centered data practice, and envisioning a positive vision for the future of data regulation.
Valentina is a former Mozilla Fellow at Privacy International where she developed the Our Data Future project and she previously worked as a digital rights policy advisor with ApTI Romania, member of the European Digital Rights (EDRi) network.
Humanitarian AI Today’s guest host Fay Schofield from the Tech for Good Live podcast series speaks with Seth Goodman who is a Data Engineer with AidData, a research lab at the College of Willam & Mary’s Global Research Institute. Seth developed GeoQuery, AidData’s free spatial data platform and he supports AidData’s machine learning initiatives.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Kate Dodgson and Robert Trigwell about the Humanitarian Data Science and Ethics Group and DSEG’s new Framework for the Ethical Use of Advanced Data Science Methods in the Humanitarian Sector. Kate is a consultant with the Data Science Initiative in the Hague and Rob is an Analytical, Knowledge and Output (AKO) Unit Lead at the United Nations International Organization for Migration.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Laura Walker McDonald, Senior Director of Insights and Impact at the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) and former member of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund’s Funding Committee, about humanitarian AI, Dial, the Humanitarian Innovation Fund and HIF’s search for new Funding Committee members.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Pamela Chestek, an attorney with extensive experience in open source software who is a member of the Open Source Initiative's Board of Directors and Chair of OSI's License Committee. Mia and Pamela discuss open source initiatives, intellectual property law, open source licenses and the subject of open data.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Brian Dolan, CEO of Verdant.AI, a startup studio that builds enterprise grade AI products and supports companies working to solve the UN's sustainable development goals. Brian is a cyberneticist humanitarian actor bridging the worlds of math and analysis for the good of humanity. For Humanitarian AI’s upcoming virtual summit, Brian will start the interview with a lightning talk and then speak more about Verdant. AI, his work, entrepreneurship in Africa, AI in digital therapeutics, and discuss how one of Verdant's studio companies is helping farmers by bringing liquidity to the biomass supply chain.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Doulkifli Boukraa from the University of Jijel, Algeria about his work, students, the tech scene in Algeria and about his Graphs4Good hackathon project applying Neo4j graph algorithms to gain insights from question / answering systems such as StackExchange.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Daniel Dardani, a Technology Licensing Officer with MIT's Technology Licensing Office, about intellectual property law relevant to artificial intelligence and humanitarian AI.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Susi Mai and Jeremy McKane, organizers of the UltraMarine Ocean Summit, about their work building communities taking action around ocean conservation.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Sean Griffin from Disaster Tech and Leo Meyerovich from Graphistry about their Graphs4Good hackathon project scaling Covid-19 behavior change and anti-disinformation.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Matt Cloyd about Aspen, Matt's Neo4j Graphs4Good Hackathon project. Aspen is a simple to use markup language for creating graph data: https://aspen-lang.org/
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Lambert Hogenhout Chief of Data Analytics, Partnerships and Technology Innovation at the United Nations and Vivek Khetan an AI Researcher at Accenture Labs about their Graphs4Good Hackathon project linked to the Sustainable Development Goals
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Karin Wolok, Community Development Manager with Neo4j about Neo4j's Graphs4Good Hackathon, graph database technology and collaboration with humanitarian organizations.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Maria Axente, Responsible AI and AI for Good Lead with PwC and Director of Outreach at AI Commons, about Maria's work and thoughts on responsible AI and the role of AI in achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou and producer Brent Phillips speak with Eric Talbert from MedShare, a humanitarian organization sourcing and directly delivering medical supplies to communities in need around the world, about questions humanitarian actors would like to be able to ask popular digital assistants like Alexa, Cortana, Google or Siri.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Rudradeb Mitra, founder of Omdena, a global platform where changemakers build ethical and inclusive AI solutions to real-world problems through collaboration.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Sameer Maskey Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University and Founder of Fusemachines, an AI solutions & services provider empowering everyone to leverage AI by running schools in underserved communities and connecting talent with job opportunities.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Stefania Druga Ph.D. student at the University of Washington researching AI literacy for families and founder of Hackidemia and Cognimates.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Alfredo Kalaitzis from Element AI about Element AI’s cutting edge AI for Good work.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Ruba Ishak from Ground Truth Solutions and Gary Forster from Publish What You Fund about their work in the humanitarian transparency and open data space, their upcoming webinar and thoughts on humanitarian AI
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Mike Kaul, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications at the Defense Innovation Unit about humanitarian AI and the DIU's xView Challenge.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Ran Goldblatt about his work at New Light Technologies, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and humanitarian AI
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Nathaniel Manning, CEO of Ushahidi, about humanitarian AI and Dispatcher, a new Ushahidi project which Nat will be heading using machine learning to match community resources with local needs.
Humanitarian AI Today's host Mia Kossiavelou speaks with Natasha Freidus about humanitarian AI and her work on NeedsList, a real-time needs registry for disaster relief and humanitarian aid.