Exploring the Values That Will Shape AI for a Better Internet

At the 2023 Mozilla Festival (MozFest), members from the Movement's organizing partners will host the session Exploring the Values That Will Shape AI for a Better Internet.

MozFest is the premiere gathering for activists, educators, technologists, students, artists, and journalists who want a more humane digital world. It will take place 20th-24th March, 2023. For tickets and more information visit the MozFest website.

Session Summary

We have all witnessed the internet’s ability to democratize knowledge, give voice to the voiceless, and support shared online spaces welcoming everyone. We have also seen how the internet’s evolution can cause unanticipated harms and how tools for sharing can be misused to manipulate, mislead, and limit choice. With artificial intelligence (AI) coming online, we now also see how benefits and harms can be augmented and accelerated at scale.

Organizations that have been championing digital human rights to benefit internet users everywhere are collaborating on an emerging Movement for a Better Internet. Our primary goal is to produce a statement of values that underpin a broader public interest vision and a collaborative policy agenda for a better internet. Together we are working to crystalize shared values about what would constitute "better" and chart paths to get to a better internet from different perspectives.

This workshop — facilitated by team members from the Movement’s organizing partners like Creative Commons, the Internet Archive, and Public Knowledge — will bring together the MozFest community to think through how artificial intelligence intersects with a better internet. What is AI enabling? What is AI foreclosing? And for who? How has AI already changed the internet, and what more changes could it bring? How is AI affecting the public interest online? What new issues emerge as AI both consumes and shapes the internet?

Workshop participants will spend time fostering a deeper shared understanding of how AI fits into an emerging movement to build a better internet and what will inform a positive policy agenda to build a better internet that includes AI. Our goal is to collaborate with participants to generate concrete ideas we all can use to ensure AI is helping to make the internet a better place for everyone.