Drafting Organizational AI Policies: Tips and Tensions

The MERL Tech Initiative (MTI) is hosting two events focusing on the creation of organisational AI policies for civil society organizations. Join us for honest conversations about the tensions of designing a thoughtful, responsible, and implementable internal AI policy. We are meeting in person in NYC for a Tech Salon and online at the NLP-CoP.

At MTI, we spend our days supporting organizations in social impact, human rights, humanitarian, and philanthropic sectors with responsible, ethical, realistic design, use, and governance of digital technologies and digital data, including AI. 

Over the past couple of years, we have worked with several organizations to help them design and roll out approaches to AI that are both relevant to their work and aligned with their values. We have also been developing our own internal AI policy. Even though we are a very small team, our process has been both enlightening and challenging, requiring multiple conversations, research, and collective reflection on tensions in multiple areas.

As we see others go through this process in inspiring ways, we decided to bring together individuals who are also grappling with establishing internal approaches to AI in their organizations. We are inviting peers for an open conversation about challenges of defining ethical, sustainable, responsible and implementable internal policies, guidance, or positions on the use of AI, including how they have defined boundaries and red lines around their use of AI, the main points they are including in their policies, the tensions they are navigating, learning from processes of establishing organizational agreements on AI use, and ways to design internal policy and guidance that adapt to the constantly shifting sands of AI. 

If you are interested in learning more about how organizations are creating their AI policies and guidance and/or would like to share your own insights and challenges with us, learn how you can join us below.

Join us online at our NLP-CoP meeting: Drafting Organizational AI Policies – Tips and Tensions

On November 3, we’ll hear from several organizations who are developing internal AI policies, including:

• Damini Satija (Director of Amnesty Tech),
• Danna Ingleton (Executive Director at HURIDOCS), and
• Dulcie Vousden (Head of Data Science at DataKind UK). 

The first hour (10-11 ET), will be a lively discussion with these organizations to learn how they are navigating tensions of designing and rolling out these policies. For the final 30 minutes (11.00-11:30) we will break out into discussion groups led by these organizations for deeper conversations. Register here to join us!

Register here to join us online.

Meet us in person in NYC for a Tech Salon on Organizational AI Policies

On Monday, November 10, 2025, at 9-11am ET we are gathering in person for a Tech Salon focusing on the challenges and tensions of designing a thoughtful, responsible, applicable, and ethical AI policy. We will be joined by:

• Damini Satija, Director, Amnesty Tech
• Brooke Watson Madubuonwu, Director of Legal Analytics & Quantitative Research, ACLU
• Deborah Brown, Human Rights Watch
• Peter Micek, Access Now
• Leah Frazier, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

RSVP here by November 06 to attend Tech Salon in person.