Humanitarian AI Today

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community. In this flashpod, Jessie Pechmann, Humanitarian GIS and Data Protection Lead with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips about satellite imaging, GIS, and the uses of AI in assessing building damage. They touch on how different AI models and methods can produce wildly different results for the same area, highlighting the need for transparency and better validation practices, including humans in the loop providing local knowledge and oversight. They also discuss the importance of "data commons," the open, shared data resources that humanitarian organizations rely on, and the challenges of supporting them amid a shift away from traditional government funding, which risks data becoming "siloed" as funding moves toward philanthropic or paid-for services. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/jessie-pechmann-from-humanitarian

Yuriy Boyechko, Founder and CEO of Hope for Ukraine, speaks with Humanitarian AI Today guest host Emrys Schoemaker, Senior Director of Policy and Advisory with Caribou Digital. They discuss Hope for Ukraine’s work, humanitarian needs in Ukraine this Winter and the organization’s new mobile app (Nadiya) which helps connect individuals and families affected by the war with essential food supplies, education services, and housing resources. They also discuss ways of integrating applications of AI into the app and use the opportunity to discuss digital inclusion, digital identity and challenges associated with assessing needs, authenticating aid recipients and aid suppliers, and broader challenges associated with digital security. Episode notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.medium.com/yuriy-boyechko-on-hope-for-ukraines-new-mobile-app-nadiya-1b1ed5deb923

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community. In this flashpod, Olivier Mills, Founder of Baobab Tech, talks about NetHope’s Global Summit and Dev Explorer, a Frontier Tech Hub pilot project supported by FCDO, with Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips. They cover takeaways from NetHope’s recent Global Summit and conversations that took place focusing on rapid advances in AI and on the need to see humanitarian actors work more closely around AI from deeply technical vantage points. They also discussed Dev Explorer, open data sharing frameworks like IATI, explainable AI and new funding initiatives like Humanity AI. This conversation explores critical challenges that the humanitarian community faces in keeping pace with the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. Olivier and Brent highlight the urgent need for humanitarian actors to move beyond high-level discussions and build new pathways for effective, deeply technical collaboration to harness AI's potential responsibly. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/olivier-mills-from-baobab-tech-on

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community. In this flashpod, Cole Leng, an AI Researcher at Harvard and former Project Manager with Nexa AI, sits down with Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to discuss the state-of-the-art and future trajectory of on-device machine learning. The discussion provides researchers and staff from humanitarian organizations with important insights into where the state-of-the-art in on-device machine learning stands today and where the cutting-edge is heading. Cole examines the critical trade-offs between on-device and cloud models, analyzing their respective workflows, performance limitations, and implementation considerations to help listeners evaluate whether on-device ML applications are suitable for their specific needs. He also offers insight into choosing LLMs, the impact of new specialized hardware on performance and capability, and how current advances in ML are shaping the next generation of applications. This episode highlights a core goal of the Humanitarian AI Today podcast: fostering dialogue between technology researchers and humanitarian practitioners. As AI and ML capabilities scale rapidly, this cross-sector engagement is crucial for mapping new technical advances to the unique operational, privacy, and resource constraints of the humanitarian field. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/cole-leng-on-the-state-and-future

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community. In this flashpod, Neha Bajwa, Vice President of Product Marketing at Neo4j, joins Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to discuss Neo4j’s major plans to support agentic AI systems that will directly benefit nonprofits and humanitarian organizations. Neo4j is the world’s leading graph intelligence platform for AI systems, and the company’s two new tools, Neo4j Aura Agent and the Model Context Protocol Server for Neo4j, will address critical development obstacles and help organizations rapidly build, test, and deploy AI agents. They also discuss Neo4j’s Graphs for Good program and Neo4j’s upcoming "NODES" developer conference, which is the biggest graph community gathering dedicated to applications, data intelligence, knowledge graphs, and AI. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/neha-bajwa-from-neo4j-unveils-new

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community. In this flashpod, Lindsey Moore, Founder and CEO of DevelopMetrics, joins Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to talk about agentic AI and bold new funding initiatives like Humanity AI. According to Humanity AI’s website, the coalition is co-chaired by Omidyar Network and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Its founding members include the Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Kapor Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Siegel Family Endowment, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Over five-years, the coalition plans to dedicate 500ドルM towards making sure people and communities beyond Silicon Valley have a stake in the future of artificial intelligence establishing an AI future where people and communities can flourish. Lindsey Moore offers a grounded perspective on the current state of AI in the humanitarian sector. She observes that despite industry buzz, most organizations are not yet experimenting with agentic AI. Instead, they are focusing on more foundational challenges, such as organizing their data and building domain-specific large language models that can grasp the unique context and terminology of their work. Discussing the Humanity AI initiative, Lindsey and Brent express hope that such bold new funding can, with an informed understanding of the sector, help offset the destructive impact of recent aid funding cuts. These cuts disrupted foundational AI capacity-building that was being carried out by established organizations with deep domain experience, destroying numerous projects and dismantling teams behind them. They make a compelling case for funders to reinvest in these organizations and their important work to prevent hard-won gains from being lost and to scale their forward momentum. The conversation serves as a call to action, emphasizing that for initiatives like Humanity AI to be truly transformative, they must go beyond traditional philanthropy. This means proactively identifying and engaging with the humanitarian community's own AI leaders, reforming conventional cyclic grant solicitation and grant-making processes that too often overlook real sector innovators and builders, and boldly forming new partnerships that make them accessible and open to input, rather than insulated behind institutional firewalls. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/lindsey-moore-from-developmetrics

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on topics of importance to the humanitarian community. In this flashpod, Chelsea McMurray, founder of the AI security startup Dorcha, joins Humanitarian AI Today producer Brent Phillips to discuss international human rights law, AI security, and the threat landscape facing humanitarian actors. They begin with Chelsea’s background in human rights law and the recent disregard for international norms that should underpin ethical AI governance. The casual conversation then pivots to AI security and the specific threats humanitarian organizations face. Chelsea explains how her startup addresses data privacy vulnerabilities and prompt injection attacks, by giving users greater control over their personal information. Protecting such sensitive data is especially critical in the humanitarian sector, where information leaks can endanger field staff and the vulnerable populations they serve. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/chelsea-mcmurray-on-ai-security-and

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to humanitarian experts and technology pioneers, to hear about new projects, events, and perspectives on critical topics. In this flashpod, Annie Brown, a Data Scientist with Humane Intelligence, talks about her team’s Bias Bounty program and how to get involved in an interview with Brent Phillips, Producer of Humanitarian AI Today. They discuss Humane Intelligence's work focusing on collaboratively designing and running rigorous evaluations that make AI systems more accountable, responsible, and fair, their bias bounty program and the strategy behind it as well as touch on how volunteers can get involved and launch their research. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/annie-brown-from-humane-intelligence

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence. In this flashpod, Petya Kangalova, Technology Partnerships and Engagement Lead with Humanitarian Open Street Map joins Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast Producer, to discuss Humanitarian Open Street Map’s Technology and Innovation Working Group, its monthly working group open discussion sessions and how people can tune-in. Substack Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/petya-kangalova-introduces-humanitarian

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence. In this flashpod, Erica Gralla, an Associate Professor at George Washington University , shares news about a new project seeking to understand the impact of recent aid funding cuts on the humanitarian and development system. The study specifically looks at how major funding cuts to U.S. aid programs in 2025 are affecting the sector. She calls on listeners who work in aid or development to participate in the study by taking a "global pulse survey". This project brings together three professors from the fields of engineering, policy, and international relations. Their goal is to understand how the funding cuts are affecting relationships, coordination, information sharing, and supply chains across organizations. By tracking how the aid ecosystem is adapting, the team hopes to capture lessons from this challenging period and help the humanitarian community chart a path forward. Erica and Humanitarian AI Today producer, Brent Phillips, discuss the survey in detail, how people can get involved, what the research team expects to learn, and the project's next steps. Survey Link: http://go.gwu.edu/AidTrack Substack Notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/erica-gralla-from-george-washington

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence. In this flashpod, Rich Woods, Global Fundraising Lead with Tech To The Rescue, joins Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today Producer, to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on fundraising and how Tech To The Rescue is adapting and leveraging AI while prioritizing authentic human interaction with grantmakers. They discuss Tech To The Rescue’s mission and evolution and speak in depth about how AI is challenging fundraisers. Rich emphasizes that while AI allows fundraisers to conduct deep research and personalize outreach on a massive scale, there is a significant risk of losing authenticity. Prospecting can generate vast amounts of information quickly, but the fundraiser may lack a genuine connection to the data. He stresses the importance of taking the time to "live" the research to ensure communications remain human-to-human. Looking toward systemic changes, Rich shares his hope that AI can help reform the fundraising process, which he calls a long-broken and resource-heavy system for nonprofits. Peering further into the future, Rich envisions AI applications acting as matchmakers, connecting funders and organizations with shared interests to facilitate open, valuable conversations and partnerships. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/rich-woods-from-tech-to-the-rescue

Voices is a new mini-series from Humanitarian AI Today. In daily five-minute flashpods we pass the mic to innovators, researchers and practitioners on the humanitarian front lines, delivering real-time news on how they are building, testing and collaborating on uses of artificial intelligence. In this podcast episode, Bill Greer, Co-founder of Common Space joins Senior Geospatial Data Scientist, Gijs van den Dool to discuss Common Space’s work focusing on building open-licensed, freely accessible, high-resolution earth observation satellites dedicated to humanitarian aid. They discuss the project from technical vantage points and address core problems that Common Space aims to solve. They touch on the accessibility of satellites and data for use by humanitarian organizations and how aid funding cuts, structural changes in the commercial imagery market, limited observational capacity and competition combined with the critical need for the humanitarian community to avoid overreliance on third-parties for critical services, necessitate the development of initiatives like Common Space. Brent Phillips who produces the Humanitarian AI Today podcast incorporates a new question into the mini-series, asking Bill: If you were standing in front of a bold transformative philanthropist like MacKenzie Scott, what would be your argument for funding Common Space? Bill’s answer outlines the importance of providing the humanitarian community with guaranteed access to satellite imagery. Substack notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.substack.com/p/bill-greer-from-common-space-on-building