In a bold new program, Data & Society will work in partnership with organizations and public institutions across the United States to build civic strength for the AI era.
Our inaugural partner, the Digital Public Library of America, will bring their expertise on AI and libraries, including their deep connections to US libraries, to this effort.
May 12, 2026 — Data & Society (D&S) today announced the launch of AI Civics, an innovative, collaborative new program aimed at extending and strengthening channels for the public to have a voice in how artificial intelligence (AI) is designed and deployed across our society. Data & Society will receive $2 million in funding from Humanity AI, a collaborative philanthropic initiative dedicated to ensuring that AI serves the public good, to launch this program. D&S is one of the civil society organizations receiving an inaugural round of pooled funding from Humanity AI.
People are demanding a stake in how AI shows up in our future. Yet as employers, government, and other institutions encourage and embrace this technology, the public’s role risks being limited to that of consumers. The AI Civics program positions the public not only as AI users, but as civic actors who can and should play a role in steering the course of this consequential technology.
AI Civics will partner with organizations across a range of sectors that are integral to the health of our communities and civic fabric, beginning with libraries; subsequently, the program will seek partnerships with labor organizations, faith groups, educational communities, and others. Through this two-year program, Data & Society will lay vital groundwork for a national civic coalition dedicated to ensuring that people and communities know how to influence local decision-making about how AI is used in and around their daily lives.
“AI’s role in our collective future depends on the choices we make as a society. We want to support communities in building their civic muscle to ensure that future innovation serves the public interest,” said Janet Haven, executive director of Data & Society. “With AI Civics, we’re extremely excited to build on our longstanding, participatory work — and to do so at a critical moment for democracy and tech development.”
Data & Society is pleased to launch this program in collaboration with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), which works with American libraries to ensure equitable access to knowledge in the digital age. Read their post about the announcement here.
The AI Civics program at Data & Society will be led by Dr. Meg Young, whose expertise in AI governance, participatory action research, and community organizing around technology and rights will enable this program to actively and effectively engage the public.
“Many people have told us that they feel disempowered and forced into a reactive position to AI adoption. It’s being rapidly rolled out in schools and workplaces, and students, families, and workers are not being consulted or included as part of the decision-making process,” Young said. “Communities are demanding more influence over how AI enters their lives; we aim to support and amplify levers for exerting agency over these experiences.”
Organizations interested in being part of the program can reach out via this form.
The AI Civics program grew out of earlier successful public engagement efforts. Notably, in the fall of 2025, Data & Society partnered with the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) to host a widely attended public event series called Understanding AI, during which the audience expressed their concerns about the impacts, tradeoffs, and hidden costs of AI, and voiced their desire for in accessible pathways to become more engaged in governing the technology. AI Civics responds to these needs.
AI Civics is supported by Humanity AI. Launched in October 2025 as a broad coalition of philanthropic leaders, Humanity AI is a $500M five-year philanthropic initiative dedicated to making sure our future with AI is shaped by and for people. Humanity AI is uniting philanthropy in a broad coalition to build a more human(e) future in which AI is shaped by and for people.
You can read Humanity AI’s press release on today’s funding announcement here. For more information about Humanity AI and the inaugural grantees, visit humanityai.ai.
About Data & Society
Data & Society is an independent nonprofit research organization, studying the social implications of data-centric technologies and automation. We recognize that the same innovative technologies that may benefit society can also be abused to invade privacy, provide new tools of discrimination, foreclose opportunity and harm individuals and communities. We believe that technology policy must be grounded in empirical evidence, and serve the public.
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Illustration by Jamillah Knowles & We and AI, edited from the original. https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/