AI Hub
Collaborating for Code, Cable, and Climate Justice
It’s time to hold the tech sector accountable for wrecking the planet and us.
Our current climate crisis is no accident. For years, corporations and governments have centred power and profit over us and our planet. While Big Oil and greedy governments are largely responsible for getting us to our current climate crisis, Big Tech has emerged as the key powerhouse that is going to keep us in this crisis.
Big Tech’s online platforms largely control public debate. Unfortunately, to fuel sensationalism and get more engagement, AI-generated deepfakes, fake news and targeted online propaganda on these platforms are making it easier to spread climate disinformation and discriminatory content. There are also many instances of climate and other activists being unlawfully surveilled using AI-enabled facial recognition software and having their content shadow-banned.
Shadow banned: when someone has their content partially or completely hidden from others without being notified by the online platform.
The tech sector drives human rights abuses and environmental damage throughout its supply chain. Around 70% of laptop and smartphone batteries rely on cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These cobalt mines are linked to child labour, radioactive waste, and destruction of the Congo Basin rainforest. Similarly, downstream, many platform workers are fighting against exploitative practices that undermine their basic labour rights.
These widespread human rights violations and large-scale environmental degradations can be overwhelming to tackle when we act alone. Thus, we have united 30+ organisations in our AI Hub to collectively work towards digital justice and climate justice. By co-designing legal actions and building lasting collaborations, we are working towards a future where the creation and use of AI and related tech infrastructure centres best interests of all of us, the climate and our planet.
What is the focus of the Hub?
The Hub focuses on legal strategies to ensure that the development and deployment of AI and related infrastructure centres human rights and environmental justice. We aim to:
Have a larger, more resilient, and more connected community working on AI accountability.
Ensure that technology increases the well-being and safety of all of us and the planet.
Achieve justice for those harmed by AI and related-infrastructure through better laws and stronger enforcement.
This Hub fosters collaboration, research and coordinated legal actions that address:
The spread of climate misinformation and greenwashing online
Harmful and discriminatory AI, platform and app design.
Labour rights across the AI and digital infrastructure supply chain.
Human rights and environmental destruction in the tech mining and manufacturing sector.
Legal and environmental concerns associated with the current data centre boom.
Use of surveillance technologies against activists, people on the move and journalists.
You can check out some of the cases we are already supporting relating to AI accountability here.
Who is in the Hub?
The cohort consists of around 30 organisations and activists across Europe, Africa and Latin America working on AI and platform accountability and environmental justice. Participants are each working on a specific legal action within the Hub.
| Organisations | Participants |
|---|---|
| AI World Project | Thomas Le Bonniec |
| AlgorithmWatch | Julian Bothe |
| Amnesty International | Mandi Mudarikwa & Gabrielle Dunn |
| Avant-Garde Lawyers | Andra Matei |
| Border Violence Monitoring Network | Pauline Fritz |
| Civil Liberties Union for Europe e.V. (Liberties) | Eva Simon |
| Collaborative Research Center for Resilience (CRCR) | Coline Schupfer |
| Data for Good | Lou Welgryn |
| European Center for Not-for-Profit Law | Karolina Iwanska |
| FIND | Lejla Camdzic & Jack, Parham |
| French League of Human Rights | Grâce Favrel |
| Génération Lumière | Hairat Assoumani & David Maenda Kithoko |
| Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. (GFF) | Davy Wang |
| Good Law Project | Duncan McCann |
| Green Screen Coalition | Maya Richman & Marie-Therese PNG |
| Homo Digitalis | Anastasia Karagianni |
| IGLYO | Yassine Chagh |
| Independent | Priscilla Ruiz |
| Internet Society | |
| Leitmotiv | Christiaan van Veen |
| Oversight Lab Africa | Mercy Mutemi & Natalie Lumumba |
| R3D: Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales | Ana Gaitán |
| Rooted Futures Lab | Chris Cameron |
| Sherpa | Tiphaine Beau de Loménie |
| Smart Aid Initiative | Fareed Ibrahim |
| SOMO | Aintzane Marquez & Lydia De Leeuw |
| State Capture | Emily Patterson |
What we have achieved so far
We recently asked our participants to provide us with feedback on the Hub. Some of the things that excited us the most are that participants:
- Have strengthened and developed new partnerships through the Hub. 80% of the participants reported interacting with each other outside our calls and events.
- Feel that the Hub has already led to more strategic engagement and strong narrative shaping for their legal cases.
- Appreciate the opportunity to interact with others working on similar legal actions in different countries and regions.
- Have a wider understanding of the different AI and tech accountability projects taking place globally.
- Have a better understanding of the legal avenues available for their legal cases.
How does the Hub work?
Monthly online meetings | In-person workshops | In-person law clinics |
Annual DFF Community Event | Secure communication between meetings | Online resource-sharing |
Contact Nikita for more information.