Projects - Emerging tech

Tackling civic participation challenges with emerging technologies

OECD, Rue André Pascal, Paris, France

This paper offers a comprehensive examination of the role emerging digital technologies can play in improving citizen participation.

reports

Astera Institute

Bay Area, CA, USA

We empower visionary, high-leverage science and technology projects with the capacity to create transformative progress for human civilization.

The report serves as an entry point to this ‘forecasting’ stream of work that organizations working in the digital rights ecosystem often overlook, especially when resources are scarce, and they are focused on current challenges and ongoing projects.

reports

Solar Protocol

Brooklyn, NY

This website is hosted across a network of solar powered servers and is sent to you from whichever server is in the most sunshine.

Affordable and clean energy

Framework for Conducting National Dialogues on Frontier Technologies

New York City

A key question is: who gets a say in the direction AI and other frontier technologies go?

framework

Nieman Lab Predictions for Journalism 2025

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Each year, we ask some of the smartest people in journalism and media what they think is coming in the next 12 months. At the end of a trying 2024, here’s what they had to say.

San José Data Usage Protocols & Public Comment initiative

San Jose, California, USA

Public Comment period for emerging place-based tech deployed in San José

city

Sentinel

Washington, DC

Conservation X Labs’ Sentinel transforms wildlife monitoring tools — like trail cameras and acoustic recorders — with revolutionary and intuitive AI technology, processing environmental data in real-time as it’s collected.

animals

Rapid

Rapid integrates advanced mapping tools, authoritative geospatial open data, and cutting-edge technology to empower OpenStreetMap mappers at all levels to get started quickly, making accurate and fresh edits to maps.

DEMOCRACY X

Denmark (Danmark)

In 2023, the Danish Board of Technology and ParticipationDenmark merged. We are now called DEMOCRACY X, with a focus on technology, society and sustainability.

Climate action

Radiant Earth

Washington, DC

Increasing shared understanding of our world through community-led initiatives that make data easier to access and use.

deliberAIde

Berlin

We are developing an end-to-end platform for in-person, online and hybrid deliberative participation processes, starting with: AI-assistance for defining the process; anonymously transcribing and documenting deliberations; summarization and in-depth analysis; and final reporting.

Auglinn

Wilmington, DE

Drop notes and questions outdoors with augmented reality, and create 2D and 3D maps. Interact with citizens outdoors and let the city speak.

apps

Air Quality Improvement and Monitoring

New York City

6-month pilot of three pole-mounted static air quality machines

The Things Network New York

Let's build an open, free and community-owned IoT data network for New York!

NYC Smart City Testbed

New York City

The NYC Smart City Testbed Program is inspiring innovation within City government by streamlining and accelerating the citywide process for piloting emerging technologies.

The Citizens’ Biometrics Council

Bringing together 50 members of the UK public to deliberate on the use of biometrics technologies like facial recognition.

Talk to the City

San Francisco

Talk to the City is an open-source LLM interface for improving collective deliberation and decision-making by analyzing detailed, qualitative data. It aggregates responses and arranges similar arguments into clusters.

Gov.UK Incubator for Artificial Intelligence

10 Downing Street

The [UK] Government is establishing an elite team of highly empowered technical experts at the heart of government. Their mission is to help departments harness the potential of AI to improve lives and the delivery of public services.

United Kingdom (government)

AfricaOSH

Africa

The African affiliate of the global Open Science Hardware community, plus its global summit

Chat2024

United States of America (the)

An AI startup's chatbots representing each of the 17 major US presidential candidates.

US Election 2024

JournalismAI's project gallery

Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE

Six AI tools under active development by professional newsrooms

The Civic AI Observatory

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

Nesta and Newspeak House announce the Civic AI Observatory (civicai.uk), an initiative to support civic organisations plan and adapt to the rapidly evolving field of Generative AI.

Newspeak

Civicspace.tech

Washington, DC

A collection of approachable but well-researched primers on emerging tech and potential benefits and risks

AI4D-Lab

Dodoma

The AI4D multidisciplinary research lab run by two public academic institutions in Tanzania, UDOM & NM-AIST. We set forth an objective to establish a multidisciplinary AI4D lab that fosters capacity development, research and innovation in responsible AI and its application in addressing societal and developmental problems in Africa.

AI Impact Lab

United States of America (the)

At AI Impact Labs, we are dedicated to helping nonprofits and mission-driven companies stay ahead of the curve by providing comprehensive support and training on using generative AI in their workflows.

Predicting Well Groundwater Quality Using Cloud-Based Machine Learning: DataKind San Francisco Partners with Aquaya and DataKind

New York City

A writeup of the partnership

Clean water and sanitation

Eye In The Sky

Portugal

Using High-Altitude Balloons [and drones] for Decision Support in Wildfire Operations

fires

Dot Go

The first object interaction app for the visually impaired. iOS only.

Jacobs Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech

Cornell Tech

Making cities stronger, fairer, and more resilient through responsible technology.

Mozilla AI

Mountain View, CA, USA

A startup — and community — building trustworthy and open-source AI.

Beyond Borders: Satellite Applications for Humanitarian Emergencies

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

A report by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub

reports

First AI-written speech delivered by US congressman

Capitol Hill

Representative for Massachusetts Jake Auchincloss used ChatGPT to help introduce legislation supporting AI research

ChatGPT

CS Fund Just Transitions

CS Fund is launching a new funding program on Just Transitions to advance social and ecological justice for a future grounded in justice, joy, belonging, and liberation for all beings.

Starling Lab

California

A new methodology to restore trust in digital media

history

LearnCard

What if we worked together to enable learner sovereignty, mobility and agency?

Great King Machines

India (Bhārat)

We manufacture embedded city maintenance machines for city civic and green agencies to upgrade to new standards of service to the citizens.

streetscape

Low-Cost Sensors and Systems for Ocean Discovery

Rhode Island

We are creating low-cost, easy-to-use deep-sea systems that gather the most critical data to inform environmental decision-making and deployment strategies.

Life below water

LandOS

LandOS facilitates project design, due diligence, finance and certification – all key to unlocking supply at scale.

Artificial Intelligence in the City: Building Civic Engagement and Public Trust

A collection of essays edited by Ana Brandusescu and Jess Reia featuring essays from participants of the AI in the City: Building Civic Engagement and Public Trust symposium that took place remotely on February 10, 2022.

city
books

Dark Data Project

Toronto

The Dark Data Project helps organizations uncover, deobfuscate, semantify and analyze problematic datasets

Global Atlas of AVs in Cities

The cities in this Atlas represent the vanguard of urban governments that are hosting tests, developing their own autonomous vehicle (AV) pilots, making plans and policy, and monitoring developments in AV technologies, uses, and markets.

Numina

Brooklyn, NY

Numina measures all kinds of curb-level activity. Anonymously and in aggregate, Numina delivers the volume counts, paths, and traffic behaviors of travelers and objects in streets.