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Technology is tearing
our families, communities, and country apart. 

This is the civil rights and national security
battle of our lifetime.
And 2023 will be the make or break year for humanity.

We need immediate
bi-partisan, cross-cultural, and multi-faith solutions
-- that respect all Americans and can be used by
politicians, policymakers, pastors, and programmers --
or the robots will almost certainly win.

So, lucky for you, the IDH already created them.
And our diverse partners already use them.
Because the fight for a just, free, and equitable digtal world is not over.
 

Tech Threats the IDH Fights I IDH Victories I IDH on the News
The IDH Story I Why the IDH Beats the Competition I Donate I Partner I Hire the IDH

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What Does the IDH Do?

Transatlantic Dialogue On Humanity and AI Regulation

Provides Consulting:
Pragmatic solutions, communications strategies,  and encodable frameworks for organizations serious about digital ethics or legal compliance.

Creates Curriculum:
Interactive, experiential, and non-ideological digital ethics education for K-12,
undergraduate, graduate, law school, CLE,
DEI, and professional credentialing.

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Digital Rights are Civil Rights

Catalyzes Civic Engagement:
Media campaigns, art exhibitions, and community trainings to defend our civil rights and protect our most vulnerable post-digital citizens.

Coordinates Research:
Interdisciplinary, nonpartisan, and peer-reviewed methods for digital ethics and technology law.

Robots We Fight


Algorithmic Bias and Discrimination:

Facial recognition, employment AI,
predictive policing,
shot spotters, and AI criminal sentencing,
all via an intersectional DEI lens

Privacy and Surveillance:

Medical, reproductive, student, criminal,
and employment data.

Free Speech and Hate Speech:

Online threats. cyberbullying; religious freedom,
art, and LGBTQIA discrimination; workplace speech;
academic freedom; and deplatforming.

Disinformation and Misinformation:

Triangulating points of agreement
across ideological and cultural “filter bubbles,”
including post-fact journalism, tech ethics,
and public health after COVID.

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To learn more about digital ethics,
check out IDH TV!

The IDH's diverse, cross-cultural,
and bipartisan coalition is growing!   

(Thank you to all of our partners!)

IDH Victories 2019-2023

The IDH doesn't just fight against robots:

We're winning. See below for a (partial) summary of how we're winning the fight for a better post-digital world.

Education

Award-winning (SXSW EDU, NPR’s Next Challenge) community, classroom, and professional trainings for:
 

  • High schools (ADL, Bytes Media, Netflix’s Coded Bias)

  • Attorneys (Nebraska, Iowa, and American Bar Associations, Minnesota Legal Rights Center, MN Human Rights Center, Minnesota Justice Research Center)

  • Undergraduate and graduate students (Indiana University, Creighton University, Univ. of Wisconsin-La Crosse)

  • Community organizations (ACLU MN, Safety Not Surveillance, Reclaim the Block, Little Earth Native HUD Community; MN Department of Health)

  • Bipartisan lawmakers, companies, and advocates

  • For full list of Education victories, click here

Civic Engagement

  • Assisting ACLU MN on the historic facial recognition ban in Minneapolis

  • Consultation, advising, and lobbying local, state, and national politicians

  • Agreement signed with prominent law firm to pursue high-impact litigation;

  • Raising $27,000 to build a food pantry for our Little Earth HUD partners during Summer of Floyd

  • Piloting cross-cultural “post-fact” journalism programs with local African American news outlets (News on Purpose; Our Black News) and inner-city high school students (Saint Paul Public Schools)

  • For a full list of civic engagement victories, click here

Curated Local, National, and International Exhibitions and Community Education Events: 

  • “All Bullets Shatter: Uncounted Stories of Gun Violence and Trauma” (w/ Guns Down. Love Up.; Project Minnesota; The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives; Institute for Digital Humanity; Second Chance MN; the Urban Educators; North Suburban Center for the Arts; Ohio State; Portland State; George State; Pittsburgh University Prison Writing Project, 2022);

  • “Plugging In: Race, Technology, and Surveillance Workshop for Advocate and Educators” (w/ ACLU MN, Reclaim the Block; Safety Not Surveillance, 2021);

  • “Digital Rights Are Civil Rights: Race and Technology” (w/ ACLU MN; Native Youth Arts Collective, February 2021); “Contaminated: COVID and Mental Health”  (International Juried Art Exhibition, 2020);

  • creating cross-cultural zine exchange projects on feminism, religion, and the First Amendment (permanent collection, Hennepin County Library. (Take a look at the IDH's zines in digital format)

  • For a full list of our curated exhibits and community education events, click here

Publications/Conferences/Awards (Selected):

  • “As Technology Evolves, So Does the Practice of Law (And So Do Attorneys)” (Nebraska Lawyer, 2019) 

  • "The Legal Implications of Algorithmic Decision Making” (Nebraska Lawyer, 2020)

  • “A Primer on Digital and Data Science Ethics,” (Nebraska Lawyer, 2022);

  • “Rhetorically Predicting a First Amendment Right to Negotiate After Janus” (William and Mary Law Review, 2020;

  • Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, 2022);

  • “Let Them All Eat Cake: Rhetorically Mapping Religious Freedom, LGTBQIA Discrimination and The First Amendment After Janus and Masterpiece” (Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business, 2020; awarded Best Paper);

  • “Algorithmic Unreliability: The Constitutionality of Employment AI” (International Vincentian Business Conference, 2022; runner-up for Best Paper.)

For a full list of Publications, Conferences, and Awards, click here

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News & Media Appearances:

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IIDH Research Wins:
 

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IDH Education Victories:
 

  • The IDH was featured at South by Southwest EDU!  Go watch our teaser trailer.
     

  • The IDH and Civic Nebraska are partnering on disinformation education.  Details later this year.
     

  • Did we mention the IDH/Coded Bias partnership?  (Yes, the Netflix documentary.)  Check out the K-12 lessons we created to accompany the documentary!
     

  • The IDH's continuing legal education efforts are, uh, continuing.  We had a fantastic talk with the amazing defense attorneys at the MN Legal Rights Center  (And Prof. Tom Freeman is on deck for talks with the Nebraska and Iowa Bar Associations).

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IDH Civic Engagement Victories:
 

  • Our Executive Director got shot at in his living room last Halloween.  (Yikes.) 
    • Thanks to our amazing donors, the IDH survived (and thrived) and is paying forward with a new campaign to raise money and awareness on gun violence and trauma in the Twin Cities. 
    • Come check out the details of "All Bullets Shatter" and our amazing partners on this endeavor.
       

  • We can't believe it's been a year since our ACLU MN events: “Plugging In" and the international juried art exhibition "Digital Rights Are Civil Rights."  Take a look at our footage for "Plugging In", and read more about "Digital Rights are Civil Rights."
     

  • IDH members Shea Sullivan and Hannah Grubbs and the IDH's work were mentioned in Peter Scott's book "Artificial Intelligence and You: What AI Means for Your Life, Your Work, and Your World," published July 2022.

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  • Kare-11 (Minneapolis Local News) interviewed the IDH about our efforts for a more just and equitable digital future!

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News & Media Appearances:

For full list of news appearances, click here

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IDH Consulting Updates (Government)
 

  • Minneapolis is going ham about drones, and the IDH testified at the public hearing.  We are continuing to work with the city council to convince them to adopt the IDH's bipartisan and cross-cultural methods for civil and productive conversations on technology ethics.
     

  • The Department of Defense is on the hunt for frameworks to audit AI and autonomous flying vehicles for ethics and human rights.  IDH was thrilled to talk to them (and we will totally try to rope them in).
     

  • Note to clients: The IDH believes in transparency -- especially surrounding technology and government.  Private companies and conversations are, however, private.

News and Media Appearances:

IDH research on AI justice got a shout out in in Forbes!

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Our attorney primer on data ethics is in Nebraska Lawyer.

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The AG News section recognized the IDH's nation-wide, ground breaking efforts on digital ethics.

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KARE-11 (NBC in Minneapolis) figured out how to tell the IDH story in two minutes.  (Thank you!) 

​ (They did this in 2018 as well.)​

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The Northerner, a student news organization located in downtown Minneapolis, recently also helped share the IDH's story.​

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Here's the IDH waking Nebraskans up about algorithms and digital justice in the Omaha World Herald.

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Oh yeah, we were on Nebraska Public Television talking about encoded bias.  Find out more here.

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Did you say podcasts? 

Here we are on Artificial Intelligence and You and The Human Lawyer.
 

The IDH is also writing a book:

We are currently talking to agents to represent the IDH's memoir (think Black Mirror meets Dead Poets Society), textbooks, podcasts, and documentary.  (But there ain't no ring on our finger yet.)  If you are an agent or publisher and want more information, please contact us.

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As you may have noticed, the students at the IDH  dream big
and don't quit. Want to help out? 

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Robots We Fight
Victories
News, IDH on the
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