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December 19, 2024/Big Ideas, News, Reflections

The Time Has Come For Us to be Unreasonable: Our 2024 Year in Review

As we reflect on the past year, it’s clear that artificial intelligence has dominated discussions across various domains. What surprises us, however, is not the volume of conversation but rather its lack of nuance. Having navigated many cycles of technological development, we recognize the urgent need to move beyond the simplistic “gloom vs. doom” narrative. Instead, we must critically examine what these technologies can do, what they cannot, and—most importantly—what we truly need from them.

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December 3, 2024/Big Ideas, Research

Black-oriented EdTech and public interest technology: a framework for accessible and ethically designed technology for K-12 students

Read new Siegel In-House Research Fellow Symon Campbell’s latest publication in Journal of Integrated Global STEM analyzing three K-12 Black-oriented EdTech platforms developed by Black women—KaiXR, Reconstruction, and TunTimo—leverage public interest technology principles to address educational inequities and counter racial biases in mainstream EdTech.

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November 21, 2024/Big Ideas

A Public Interest Agenda For The Technological Gilded Age

How can we build a resilient public interest technology movement that withstands shifts in administration and power? Siegel President & Executive Director Katy Knight lays out her vision for change in her latest article as a Forbes Nonprofit Council member.

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November 12, 2024/Big Ideas

Event Recap: Doing Tech Together

During this year’s United Nations High-Level Week, we hosted Tech Together – a gathering of 200+ funders, mission-aligned investors, and thought leaders for a full-day event aimed at inspiring new ideas and catalyzing partnerships to shape the next evolution of a global public interest tech network. Watch featured panels and speakers, and read out takeaways.

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October 9, 2024/Big Ideas

Civic Knowledge Infrastructure in the Digital Age

AI tools can be used to generate content, but only humans can generate context. In an age full of systems designed for scale and demanding the rapid processing of data, local institutions can help preserve meaningful context for their communities.

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October 2, 2024/Big Ideas, Research

We Need Better Data on Workplace AI

Owen Davis is a labor economist and post-doctoral research fellow at Siegel Family Endowment, where he explores the workforce impacts of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Read his latest op-ed, featured in Tech Policy Press, about how we need to collect better data about not only how AI is affecting what work we do, but how it is done.

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August 28, 2024/Big Ideas

A strong digital infrastructure is crucial to creating jobs in rural America

Featured on Working Nation’s Work in Progress podcast, Josh Elder, vice president and head of grantmaking for Siegel Family Endowment, discusses the importance of tech connectivity in creating access and opportunity to jobs in rural America and the overall impact technology is having on society, education, and the way we do our jobs.

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July 17, 2024/Big Ideas

Optimist? Pessimist? How a dose of techno-pragmatism can make tech the good guys again

A techno-pragmatist view recognizes the ubiquity and possibility of technology while acknowledging its limitations and those of the ecosystem that creates it. Read the latest from Katy Knight in Impact Alpha

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May 1, 2024/Big Ideas, Research

The 10 Big Questions for 2024 on the impact of technology on society

The Siegel Research Team set themselves the challenge of articulating “10 big questions” that we should be grappling with in order to gain greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities that we all face. The list captures our brainstorming at the end of 2023, and incorporates numerous refinements based on many discussions we’ve had in early 2024. 

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April 23, 2024/Big Ideas, Research

From Values Agnostic to Values Driven

The breakneck progress of generative AI seems to be condensing into fresh momentum for comprehensive tech policy. However, to design effective, foward-looking policy, we must start with a shift in discourse around technology and technology policy from values-agnostic to values-driven.

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February 22, 2024/Big Ideas

Playback: Katy Knight and PIT-UN Leaders at SIDGE Symposium

The rapid development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has far outpaced society’s ability to understand its implications, and the government’s ability to regulate these tools to prevent harm. But AI is not in the driver’s seat, people are. This panel discussion centered communities in the conversation, and going beyond AI hype and doomism to explore an alternative future: one rooted in wellbeing, ethics, and justice.

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