Weeknote S3 E93 15/05/2026 The both/and AI edition

What was happening?

• This week had a bigger picture flavour with my own annual appraisal and meetings with Chiara and Alison to talk through their longer-term plans.
• In the middle of the week I was working on some draft data and IP sharing agreements, and getting started with slides and outlines for my next batch of AI talks
• On Wednesday I headed down to London for a Funder AI conference held on Thursday, organised by the National Lottery Community Fund.
• Friday is weeknotes and catching up with some digital/data folk in Stroud

What was going well?

• It was good to review my year with Karin and look back on what went well (a fair few things, especially since it was an 11-month year for me)
• I appreciated bigger picture conversations with Alison and Chiara about Cyber and Climate respectively: there’s so much critical stuff to do in both these areas, so it’s interesting to think about what differences we want to see over the next year or two.
• The funder AI conference was an energising day with lots to think about, and my lightning talk on how funder-hosted AI tools might boost equity seemed to go down well.

What was more challenging?

• No real challenges this week

What was I noticing or wondering about (AI edition)

The funder AI conference had a strong emphasis on critical approaches to AI with great contributions from Rachel Coldicutt, Tania Duarte and Tim Davies. I’ve learned from their work for a few years now but it was powerful to hear them together on a panel. I admired the ambition of the day where speakers and groups dove deep into the knotty issues of AI for the funding and charity sector.

AI is a real both/and technology – while can offer welcome practical benefits for a hard-pressed sector, adopting it uncritically risks accelerating the risks and harms of big tech. This poses lots of dilemmas and trade-offs that we’ve been talking about for over three years now. So it was encouraging to see a big group of folk confronting these issues and in a clear-sighted and nuanced way. Kudos to the TNLCF team for inviting provocation while creating a positive, engaging space. Particular points from the morning that I appreciated:

• Hope comes from people and communities and the sector – not from ‘magic’ tech (Rachel)
• We need to pay attention to the ‘tech tax’ and use small choices to recover agency and resilience (Tim)
• We should keep centring our own aims and priorities ‘What’s the best future we can imagine?’ (Tania)

My own contribution was a slightly more focussed provocation on how funders might share agency and burdens around grant applications more equitably. With around two thirds of charities using AI tools to help them with funding bids, we need to confront the reality that this is a) becoming standard practice and b) risks exacerbating structural disadvantage, as already-savvy charities move further ahead.

All that said, it was a LOT of knotty systems thinking. As a sometime philosopher, I enjoy a bit of knotty thinking as much as the next person. But I am left pondering what this might mean for your average small charity, looking to do fairly straightforward things with technology. At SCVO, we play a sense-making and pioneering role in helping the sector work out how to use tech in ways that align with our purposes and align with our values. But we also get a lot of questions which are more practical.

The starting point for a lot of charities that come to us for support is typically looking at short-term practical challenges and technical questions. And thinking longer-term, there are big reasons to help charities claim back agency from big tech – but there’s a real risk that this can lead to tech debt and ongoing bottlenecks which small charities can do well without.

So no easy answers. But as Sarah Watson reminded us there is value in sitting with complexity and discomfort and seeing what this leads to, rather than jumping to easy default answers.

What am I reading?

I’m still deep in Snow Crash, which has on-brand themes of people hacking and remixing tech to serve their needs.

Sailing sidenote

Enjoying the longer days and sunnier weather, I got out for a nice wee drifty sail early on Sunday morning. Early starts are often very calm to start with but the wind always wakes up!