Generative AI: Opportunities, Concerns & Solutions from MozFest 2023

Back in March, movement members facilitated a workshop on generative AI with the MozFest 2023 community: Exploring the Values That Will Shape AI for a Better Internet. Known as a “premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world,” MozFest provided a great opportunity to bring together over 50 people to generate insights into what we should be thinking about generative AI as we work to help shape policy to build a better internet.

Our discussion centered around three questions: What opportunities does generative AI offer? What are its risks? And where might we work to address them?

Overall, our session participants saw substantial opportunities in generative AI, including how it could enhance human creativity and efficiency, democratize creative expression, and offer new insights to difficult problems. But they also had several concerns: AI is moving too fast and it’s not clear what impacts it will have. Generative AI could have negative economic impacts, may be developed or implemented in harmful or biased ways, and raises concerns about intellectual property.

Imagining how their concerns could be addressed, our participants looked at both big picture solutions — systemic changes in society and economy — and more specific solutions — public investment in AI for all, policy and regulation, practices to help ensure ethical development, and education about generative AI.

Last, but not least, participants explored the idea that we might change how we think about AI: Rather than seeing AI as either an unparalleled revolution or a world-ending crisis, we might instead see it as a collection of varied technologies and practices with risks and benefits that are within our power to shape and control.

Visit the full report to read a synopsis of outcomes, dive deeper into the results, and contribute your comments. We hope to see more conversation in the document itself to further enrich our understanding of what the public-interest community is thinking about generative AI.

As our work continues, we will be holding additional opportunities to gather more community input like this at events like RightsCon, Wikimania, DWebCamp and more. We plan to build on prior input at each gathering to expand and augment a growing collection of opportunities, risks, and solutions offered by generative AI. All the gathered input will in turn inform the policy agendas, labs, and campaigns we develop in the movement. Join us, or follow us on Twitter to learn what we’ll be doing at these and other events.