We had a great time at the Good Tech Summit in Washington DC.

After two days of sessions almost exclusively devoted to how nonprofits should navigate AI, here’s my main takeaway:

No one has figured it out yet.

Lots of ideas. Lots of pilots. I could have lived with a little less speculation.

Here are a few examples I heard:

A data analyst from a mental health nonprofit in Illinois was leading the rollout of AI to their team of hundreds of case workers. It required months of planning and won’t fully take shape for years. People on the team feel like it’s taking way too long and others are worried that it’s going way too fast.

An ecologist from one of the largest conservation organizations in the world is piloting a training program to help their organization (and the many nonprofits they support) use AI to preserve species and habitat. They have nearly a thousand employees and this effort is being led by an ecologist–not a technology person.

A climate leader has created small, intimate gatherings to discuss AI Fluency not merely from a technical point of view, but a philosophical and moral one. Her climate colleagues have a Whatsapp group where they share stories, what they’re learning, and fears and concerns.

She said, “We don’t fully know the climate implications of AI; it holds tremendous promise for helping us solve complex challenges, but it uses a massive amount of precious resources. AI is neither good nor evil. It will only be used for good, if people point it at good things.”

A few more takeaways:

• Rolling out AI to your team is a daunting leadership challenge.
• To fully meet people where they are at, we need to meet them emotionally, philosophically, and spiritually. We have to be human.
• If your team associates AI with job losses and the destruction of the planet, they’re going to have a hard time seeing how it will make their work better. They may fail to learn how to point this powerful technology towards good things. (See leadership challenge above.)
• Domain expertise will be as important as technical expertise. AI experts are cool, but ecologists using AI are cooler.
• This is so new that no one knows how to do this, which means anyone is qualified to experiment.

An audience member asked, “What should we do next?” and most of the panelists talked about creating a governance policy and how to stay up to date with everything that’s happening. When it turned to the climate leader, she said:

“I would suggest that you go for a walk, preferably through nature. Touch some grass and remember why you are doing this.”

Applause broke out.

Remember why you are doing this.

Anchor to the mission.

We had such a great time learning from leaders (who themselves are learning), and we are so glad we went.

Wait. “We?” Why is Ted from tedkriwiel.com talking about “We?” Who is this “we” he speaks of? Are there others?

There’s no “I” in team.

More next week.

Ted