Humanitarian AI Today

In this Humanitarian AI Today episode, Yemesrach Assefa Workie (Yemi), Executive Director of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), speaks with producer and guest host Brent Phillips about open data as a strategic infrastructure for artificial intelligence. As an open data sharing framework widely used across the humanitarian community, IATI tracks over $3.9 trillion in funding across more than one million development and relief activities reported by nearly 2,000 organizations. The conversation explores how rapid advances in machine learning are reigniting interest in large structured data sets, allowing AI applications to seamlessly traverse IATI’s vast corpus and convert decades of decentralized global aid data into real-time operational insights. The interview dives into practical use cases where AI tools are already unlocking the value of IATI's machine-readable XML standard alongside the 500,000 unstructured evaluation documents, audits, and reports linked within its database. Yemi highlights real-world implementations, such as the UK Government’s Development Explorer for portfolio analysis, Germany’s AI-driven data quality checks, and IATI’s deployment of AI help desk agents. However, she cautions that AI capabilities are only as good as their underlying inputs, urging humanitarians to manage critical risks including poor data quality, loss of local crisis context, representation bias from varying publishing volumes, and over-reliance on automation over human judgment. A key takeaway from the discussion focuses on how publishing open data acts as a vital visibility multiplier for aid organizations in the AI age. As autonomous agents, LLMs, and decision-support systems become the primary interfaces for analyzing crisis responses, unstandardized or unshared operational data effectively renders an organization invisible to automated discovery. By channeling standardized data through open frameworks like IATI, actors of all sizes, particularly small civil society organizations and local NGOs, ensure their ground-level contributions, delivery partnerships, and operational footprints are accurately represented and indexed by global AI systems. Looking ahead to major sector gatherings like the AI for Development Summit hosted by DevelopMetrics, the episode underscores why structured open data standards are experiencing a major revival. By providing a standardized, verified baseline, large datasets like IATI prevent model hallucinations, enable cross-domain interoperability with geospatial or climate data, and lay the groundwork for futuristic decision-support tools. Concluding with a clear call to action, Yemi encourages organizations of all sizes to publish their data, refine entry quality, and leverage free IATI tools to position themselves at the forefront of AI-driven humanitarian action. Humanitarian AI Today is a community-produced podcast and a proud member of the Devex Podcast Network, an initiative dedicated to expanding the visibility of coverage across global health, development, and relief sectors. The series brings together community partners like the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and enterprise technology leaders like Neo4j, providing an open channel for humanitarian actors and technical teams to share updates on AI projects, discuss advances in machine learning, and collaborate on data-driven solutions for the sector.

On this special Humanitarian AI Today episode recorded in Chinese and English, Lili Qiu, Co-founder and Chief Supervisor of the Peaceland Foundation speaks with guest host, Brent Phillips, and Ankang Song, Executive Director at Global Youth Philanthropy, about the Peaceland Foundation’s aid work around the world and experimentation with AI. As the global humanitarian community gathers for the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, this insightful interview offers Western organizations an exclusive window into how China's fast-evolving technology ecosystem is transforming disaster relief and healthcare. The discussion explores how Chinese non-profits are actively experimenting with cutting-edge AI, from deploying autonomous medical rescue ships to standardizing drones for wildfire and flood responses. The podcast episode highlights the dynamic partnerships driving these innovations, showcasing how Chinese organizations closely collaborate with universities and research institutions to test intelligent equipment in real-world disaster scenarios. It also addresses the operational agility required to keep pace with China's rapid tech advancements while keeping production and supply chain costs exceptionally low for underdeveloped regions. Most importantly, the interview serves as a bridge for international cooperation, offering practical advice on how Western and Chinese organizations can break through linguistic barriers, build mutual trust, and establish direct channels for meaningful cross-border collaboration.

In this Humanitarian AI Today episode, Michael Tjalve, Independent Humanitarian AI Advisor and co-author of the SAFE AI framework, speaks with guest host Jennifer Wilde, an AI strategy and social impact advisor, about AI governance, the SAFE AI initiative and the evolving security and operational landscapes. Against the backdrop of critical, sector-wide dialogues bringing together executive leadership and technical teams from organizations of all sizes, they explore the new safety and security topics of concern posed by advances in AI, compute distributed across agents, and the emergence of sophisticated models like Mithos that can expose and be used to exploit critical IT security vulnerabilities. Michael outlines his advisory work helping humanitarian organizations understand how they can confidently use AI in a way that is both effective and responsible, emphasizing the increasingly present role that artificial intelligence has in humanitarian action today. Jennifer and Michael discuss the SAFE AI framework next, the Standards and Assurance Framework for Ethical AI, which stands as the first operational, end-to-end AI governance framework tailored specifically for humanitarian actors. Developed through a vital collaboration between the CDAC Network, The Alan Turing Institute, and the Humanitarian AI Advisory, with critical funding from the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and deep consultation with East African researchers and communities, the toolkit bridges the gap between high-level policy and grassroots implementation. They walk through how both large and small organizations can start utilizing the toolkit today, what is essential to know to begin, and exactly where to start. Pointing out how organizational governance is lagging behind organic, "shadow IT" AI experimentation, Michael and Jennifer discuss in detail why structured guardrails are vital for the sector. They address how crucial it is for team members and staff across entire organizations, whether at global headquarters or country offices, to have access to appropriate training and a centralized focus on AI policy and strategy, highlighting how the SAFE AI framework provides actionable guidance to achieve this. Touching on rapid technological leaps, Michael notes how the emergence of agentic AI introduces an additional layer of complexity for responsible governance. With semi-autonomous processes executing tasks on an organization's behalf, the potential for compounding errors increases while transparency declines, a distance that challenges traditional accountability models and complicates oversight. Together, Michael and Jennifer advocate for starting any AI adoption journey with a clear focus on the specific human need or use case rather than deploying the technology for its own sake. Drawing on the core tenets of the framework, co-authored by Michael alongside Suzy Madigan, Helen McElhinney, Sarah Spencer, and Anjali Mazumder, they emphasize that true accountability requires an operational commitment to "communities in the loop". This means ensuring that frontline staff can confidently explain AI-driven outcomes to affected populations, and that AI systems never silently or inequitably exclude the very people humanitarians are bound to protect. Ultimately, they agree that while the rapid expansion of AI is exciting, organizations must maintain a healthy balance of curiosity and caution, allowing their concerns to drive continuous learning and the proactive questioning necessary to confidently take responsible steps forward. Because there is absolutely no margin to get it wrong in a humanitarian crisis, this collective effort reminds listeners that stress-testing AI governance under extreme, high-stakes conditions does not just safeguard vulnerable populations; it creates a vital proof of concept with profound lessons for how responsible AI should be governed anywhere in the world.

In this Humanitarian AI Today Voices flashpod, Theodora Skeadas, Head of AI Red Teaming with Humane Intelligence, joins guest host Brent Phillips to unpack for staff from humanitarian organizations what AI red teaming is and how Humane Intelligence approaches carrying out AI evaluations. They also discuss the nonprofit’s mission to make AI systems more accountable, fair, and safe and the organization’s latest initiatives. The discussion traces the evolution of Humane Intelligence’s evaluation work, highlighting recent milestones such as the open-source release of their evaluation application and their expanded bias bounty programming in collaboration with platforms like Zindi. Theodora outlines the fundamentals of artificial intelligence evaluations and red teaming methodologies applied to humanitarian applications. The discussion offers a practical introduction to the testing and evaluation of generative AI models, specifically tailored to help staff from aid organizations understand how these systems operate and learn how to carry out effective risk assessments. For humanitarian actors looking to ethically integrate artificial intelligence into active crises workflows, the interview provides a grounded framework for identifying potential harms before and after applications deployment. Theodora outlines how organizations can proactively red team tools for systemic vectors of concern, including factuality, geographic bias, and public health misinformation using simple workplace tools like spreadsheets or through step-by-step guidance found in resources like The Playbook: Red Teaming Artificial Intelligence for Social Good. By demonstrating how humanitarian actors can systematically test language models for safe output boundaries, the conversation illustrates a critical pathway toward building more transparent, responsible, and localized AI implementations across the sector.

Priyank Hirani, Vice President of Programs at data.org discusses the India AI Impact Summit and India’s role as a development space and test bed for responsible and inclusive AI applications with Humanitarian AI Today Producer, Brent Phillips. In this insightful conversation, Hirani highlights how India is shifting the global narrative away from frontier model competition toward practical, population-scale AI deployment that addresses real-world challenges in health, agriculture, and finance. By building directly upon a decade of robust digital public infrastructure, the Indian ecosystem accelerates adoption through lean, cost-effective and context-aware innovation. Hirani emphasizes how this unique ecosystem serves as a powerful blueprint for the global majority, championing "South-South" collaborations and responsible and inclusive AI innovation. The episode underscores data.org’s mission as a global catalyst, capacity builder, and convener in the social impact sector. Hirani discusses the organization’s ambitious goal to cultivate one million purpose-driven data professionals by 2032 through its expanding Capacity Accelerator Network. Looking ahead to the future of technology, he shares a compelling vision for "Civic AI” and the creation of persistent, multilingual, and context-aware personal AI agents designed to help citizens frictionlessly navigate complex public systems. The conversation is packed with updates on data.org’s latest initiatives, including regional hackathons and the Finverse, a decision support tool and resource hub designed to help organizations in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region use data and AI to improve the financial health of the individuals and communities they serve. This episode is a must-listen for social impact professionals, researchers, and anyone invested in a more equitable and human-centered AI future.