HRF’s AI Hack for Freedom III was featured once again on National Public Radio (NPR), this time on “All Things Considered,” reaching millions of listeners across the United States. The segment explores the impact of our two-day hackathon, held Sept. 24–25 in Washington, D.C.
NPR Cybersecurity Correspondent Jenna McLaughlin, who also covered the hackathon for “Weekend Edition” in September, speaks with Evan Mawarire, a pastor and Zimbabwean pro-democracy activist who led the #ThisFlag movement in 2016, about the challenge of embracing AI:
Mawarire was building a scheduler tool aimed at helping activists carve out time for breaks. He’s more comfortable fighting a government’s surveillance apparatus than working with technology, but he says he’s learning that technology isn’t inherently evil. It’s a tool, and he can use it, too.
– McLaughlin
If activism is going to be effective, it also has to evolve.
– Mawarire
Mawarire is one of 10 activists from around the world who has come to Washington to work with the Human Rights Foundation and a team of developers to compete to see who can make the best digital tool for activists to solve real-world problems. And each team gets to use their own AI assistant. In the past, hackathons like this might lead to a proof of concept, something that would require a lot more money and time from technical experts and deep-pocketed donors to later bring to life, if at all. But with AI coding agents to speed up the process, teams are able to build things they can use in just two days.
– McLaughlin
In another part of the segment, McLaughlin speaks with Carine Kanimba, a Rwandan human rights activist and daughter of Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered and saved more than 1,200 people in his hotel during the Rwandan genocide. Kanimba’s team won the hackathon with Behind the Jersey, a platform that exposes “sportswashing,” when authoritarian regimes use sport sponsorship to improve their image and cover up human rights abuses. On Behind the Jersey’s website, users can find their favorite teams and see whether the teams’ sponsors are connected to repressive regimes.
When I visit her team’s war room, I see an image of a soccer jersey and ask what that has to do with human rights or technology.
– McLaughlin
There’s a lot of countries that use sports as a way to whitewash their image.
– Kanimba
The story aired on NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Oct. 27. Listen to the full segment to learn more about political dissidents turning AI into a force for good.
Listen to the full 4-minute story
The AI Hack for Freedom III was co-hosted by HRF, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the AI Freedom Lab. The University of Maryland School of Public Policy cultivated student engagement in the hackathon to train the next generation of technologists who can help advance democracy.
Want to be part of the next one?
Applications are open for AI Hack for Freedom IV, coming to San Francisco, Calif., on Dec. 2–4. Apply now to join developers and human rights defenders building freedom tech.
