AI and Digital Inclusion: themes from recent NDIA work

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance contracted with MassHire Metro North Workforce Board, the organization that leads the Digital JEDI Consortium in Massachusetts on training and support for their digital navigator program. In thinking through the topic of our last professional development training together, one topic kept coming up again and again: artificial intelligence. However, it quickly became apparent that people wanted not just some basic knowledge about AI, but also guidance on how to approach the field as digital inclusion practitioners. I was privileged to be given a lot of freedom by the MassHire team to explore some big questions. I wanted to share a couple of themes that surfaced from the research, development, and delivery of the AI training:

• Understanding how something is made opens up deeper discussions on its impacts
• Practitioners are hungry for conversations about the impacts of AI on individuals and society
• We already have many of the tools we need