Chelsea McMurray on AI Security and the Threat Landscape Facing Humanitarian Actors
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
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Annie Brown from Humane Intelligence on their Bias Bounty Program
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
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Petya Kangalova Introduces Humanitarian OpenStreetMap’s Tech and Innovation Working Group
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
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Erica Gralla on a New Study Mapping the Impact of Funding Cuts on Humanitarian Aid
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
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Bill Greer from Common Space on Building Dedicated Satellites for the Humanitarian Community
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
Humanitarian AI Today is the leading AI for Good podcast series focusing on humanitarian applications of artificial intelligence. We interview leaders, developers and innovators advancing humanitarian applications of AI from across the tech and humanitarian communities. The series is produced by the Humanitarian AI meetup.com community, linking local groups in Cambridge, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Toronto, Montreal, London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Geneva, Zurich, Bangalore, Tel Aviv and Tokyo.
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