6 Thoughts About AI + a workshop

BUT FIRST, we have a free online workshop you can join where participants will get to use a new AI-based tool we’ve developed.

Make the Dream Real with a Strong Objective
In unstable times, clear goals and specific, detailed outcomes give us a sense of direction and purpose where creativity can take root. 

We’re offering a free workshop that will give you that clarity! More on that below.

Lately we’ve been doing a lot of internal reading, meeting, and discussing about AI. We believe creative activists deserve access to the best tools available. So at the Center for Artistic Activism we feel we have a responsibility to scan what’s out there and study, consider, and experiment. We get philosophical. We get practical. It’s required – the landscape of our work is always changing and research is one way we stay ahead.

So we’ve been talking about AI; what’s good, what’s bad, what has potential, what has real liablities for us and our work. We’re not done, but we wanted to share 3 thoughts that have come up from our recent conversations.

Thought #1: When it comes to AI, there are real concerns.

The current AI infrastructure comes with a serious environmental cost. Data centers that demand energy are often cited in communities that already bear more than their fair share of industrial burden. Many of the major players in this space have made promises they’ve broken on privacy, pricing, and climate commitments. (They can also just be a bit… creepy?) Some have aligned themselves with governments and power structures that should alarm anyone with a conscience. And the possible labor implications, in the current capitalist system, for everyone from career union screenwriters to entry level office jobs can feel staggering.

Thought #2: There are echoes in history

Looking historically, the current economic situation was explained by Marx’s Crises Theory in the 1800’s. And movements through time always had to adapt to technological change.

If you’ve sat in one of our workshops, you know this story: the Civil Rights Movement used photography and television to drag what was happening in the South into full public view around the world. Similarly, the Zapatistas in the mid-90s were early adopters, using the internet to broadcast their cause globally. Go back decades and even early labor organizers used the telegraph to coordinate strikes.

It goes on. There are activism histories connected to the printing press, radio, the photocopier, cellphones, and social media. And hey, Moses used stone tablets! Anyway, the details of each are complex, but these examples show us similar paths have been navigated before by those bringing new technologies into alignment with their values. We can use those insights and perspective.

Thought #3: A diversity of strategies can be a strength

We’ve long believed we don’t win long term victories by everyone doing the same thing – the same strategy, the same tactics, the same targets, the same methods.

Some people and organizations are well-positioned to organize around AI – pushing utilities, businesses, and governments to address energy consumption, establish real data protections, and build regulatory frameworks for this new era. That work is critical. It needs to happen. (We can help, get in touch!)

Others need to be using the technology – building with it, applying it, shaping it toward activist ends. Developing the knowledge and muscle that comes from practice. Advancing campaigns with it now. This article argues Socialists should want to use AI, wrest it from the hands of capitalists, and free us all from mindless drudge work so everyone has a better life. That work also needs to happen. (We can help, get in touch!)

In our meetings, we realized we support both. We can resist the pull toward an insistence that there is one correct position and that everyone else is complicit or naïve. We all don’t have to agree on which approach is right. At this point, we can stay open, consider what’s possible, and where we can have the most impact. We can move forward, gather information, and re-assess. Movements have always required different people taking different approaches, absorbing different kinds of risk. This is no different. And at early stages, when nobody knows which approach will ultimately win, a diversity of strategies can be a strength.

Thought #4: Disengagement has a cost

At the Center, we read a recent piece in The Forge making a compelling case that “our movements opting out of AI is not a strategy.” The authors – Lee Anderson and Oluwakemi Oso, Black organizers and technologists at re:power – make the case that AI is a terrain of power and that ceding that terrain to billionaires and autocrats doesn’t protect anyone. It just leaves the architecture of the future in their hands.

Here’s some choice quotes:

Thought #5: What can happen when ethics are aligned?

One thing that’s shifted our thinking: seeing what this technology looks like when it’s built by people who are actually in the fight.

1. DebunkBot is AI chatbot that functions as an evidence-based solution for disinformation.
2. The Patients Union used an AI text tool to get new audiences involved in healthcare advocacy the moment they joined.
3. Change Agent AI and Thaura are AI providers that come out of movements and communities who are fighting for the underdog. 
4. Syrian Archive is a Syrian led effort that used machine learning to identify illegal weapons and build evidence to prosecute war crimes.
5. Fair Count (in our recent Field Tests program)used AI-generated video to test which content style — gospel song, sermon, comedy, or educational presentation — best moved Black church communities in rural Georgia and Mississippi to commit to vote.
6. Packard Jennings (artist, alumni) used AI to craft a polished, modern country song designed to slip under the radar on all the streaming platforms. It has all the trappings of a country hit, except the title: I’m a Cowboy, Not a Nazi 

These case studies are not all perfect solutions. However, they do show that the field isn’t monolithic. Values-aligned alternatives are being built by people with real stakes in getting it right.

Thought #6: Could this work for us?

After experimenting in developing AI-supported tools for activist training and coaching, we think so. 

Inspired by Debunkbot, we decided to try building a tool that would help people with one of the most challenging parts of our curriculum: teaching people to articulate clear outcomes. Solid objectives are critical for strategy – but in our work around the world, we’ve found wrestling one into shape is a major struggle for individuals and organizations of all sizes. It’s counterintuitive, but a strong objective clears the fog. When you can see where you’re going, creative ways of getting there start to flow.

AAAAAAAND, you can try this new tool in our upcoming objectives workshop! It’s a chat-based coaching tool that guides you through defining a clear outcome – the starting point for projects and campaigns that actually work, whether you’re planning a national push or a creative intervention down the street.

Upcoming Online Workshop

Make the Dream Real With a Strong Objective

Every campaign starts with a dream. Turning it into something you can actually act on, measure, and win is a different skill – and we built a new AI-powered tool to help you do it.  The Center for Artistic Activism has been training activists for over 15 years. That experience is baked into this tool.

Join our virtual training with Vivian Peng (Alumni and Board Member) and Steve Lambert (Co-founder and Artistic Director)
March 25th, 8–9pm ET

Learn the process, try the tool, and leave with a clear path forward you can start on this week. Free.

We shared some of our thoughts. What are yours? Let us know what you’ve been thinking about all this.

Looking forward,

Steve Lambert
Co-Founder, Artistic Director