Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Schroeder speak with Brent Phillips, Humanitarian AI Today podcast producer, about the New Commons Challenge (https://newcommons.ai/) focusing advancing AI for public good through data commons. Dr. Stefaan G. Verhulst is an expert in using data and technology for social impact. He is the Co-Founder of several research organizations including the Governance Laboratory (GovLab) at New York University and The DataTank based in Brussels. Dr. Andrew Schroeder is the Vice President of Research and Analysis for Direct Relief and the Co-Director of CrisisReady.

The Open Data Policy Lab, a collaboration between The GovLab and Microsoft, launched the New Commons Challenge initiative to advance the responsible re-use of data for AI-driven solutions that enhance local decision-making and humanitarian response. The Challenge will award two winning institutions $100,000 each to develop data commons that fuel responsible AI innovation in these critical areas. The Challenge builds on the Open Data Policy Lab’s recent report, “Blueprint to Unlock New Data Commons for AI,” which advocates for creating collaboratively governed data ecosystems that support responsible AI development. The Challenge is backed by leading institutions committed to ethical AI and open data. Partners include Direct Relief / CrisisReady, and Harvard Law School Library, and UNESCO as international observer, which will provide subject-matter expertise and evaluation support.

Stefaan, Andrew and Brent discuss the New Commons Challenges in detail and touch on data commons for AI, disaster relief and local decision making, AI governance, data sharing architectures and data re-use, advances in artificial intelligence and human-AI interaction, and the intersection of collective intelligence and artificial intelligence.