The Frontier Technology initiative seeks to advance education on the societal impact of new technologies and technological change, through providing grants and donations to leading universities. It also seeks to drive policy reform to ensure accountability in the tech ecosystem and protections from harm for the benefit of the public.
The initiative works to address the widespread violation of human rights associated with the unfettered use and abuse of personal information in the tech ecosystem.
Our funded projects utilise a range of tools to:
- increase education, research and training to better understand the power dynamics and processes active in the industry;
- stimulate public debate about improving processes in the tech industry;
- facilitate innovation and intervention to safeguard the interests of the public; and
- initiate collective action to bring about improvements in law and policy,
in order to overcome the power imbalance and lack of accountability that jeopardises the rights and interests of consumers and the general public.
Fund
XR30 Fund
Investing in research and advocacy projects that ensure public interest values shape virtual reality, the metaverse, and other emerging technologies
Established in November 2019 following two major ‘Eminent Thinkers in AI Governance’ convenings, the Frontier Technology initiative funds:
- University-based programs
- Impact projects
- Strategic Public platforms.
Our international network of academic partners and education and research projects are uncompromising in their focus on the following objectives:
- Researching and monitoring the negative and harmful impacts of frontier technology on the general public;
- Driving accountability of the tech ecosystem in complying with international human rights;
- Consulting with governments on law reform and regulation;
- Pursuing high profile advocacy on behalf of tech consumers and the general public;
- Protecting the rights of people to privacy and not to be deprived of one’s property, and reversing exploitative information practices;
- Promoting principled innovation of the systems and processes in the tech industry, as well as safe and accountable tech commerce; and
- Managing the downsides of technology so that the upside can thrive.
A safe world means a world designed for agency and freedom, where everyone has confidence in interacting with new technologies and the opportunities they present.
The Frontier Technology initiative is committed to promoting world-class academic research and policy, as well as supporting communities, to build a safe tech ecosystem for the benefit of the general public. The world is familiar with what this looks like in every other domain of society, where codes, laws, and standards all coexist to guarantee personal safety. But global technology companies often operate outside the borders of national regulation in a state of exception, despite our deep digital dependencies.
We have a message from the future. As in the era of civil engineering, we need to develop processes that shift responsibility for protecting the public away from individuals, and back onto our governing institutions. Tech consumers should not have to manage impossible trade-offs about risk and potential harm in order to interact with all things digital.
Accountability must rest with those who develop and profit from these products, as well as with governments. A safe world means a world designed for agency and freedom, where everyone has confidence in interacting with new technologies and the opportunities they present.
Photo Credit: Laurence Dutton
