19.05.2026
The Future Needs Values: AI as a Design Task for Foundations
What a packed room at the Pre-Event of the German Foundations Day in Hamburg! On behalf of iRights.Lab, I had the chance to deliver a keynote to representatives from foundations on a question gaining urgency by the week. At the centre stood a dimension of the AI debate that often gets too little attention in the foundation sector: what AI systems do to what foundations perceive beyond their own walls. Three outcome paradoxes follow – around information, visibility, and trust – and three design tasks: visibility as a strategic question, interpretation as a new foundation task, and trust as an infrastructure to be actively maintained. „Acting from freedom", this year's motto, takes on very concrete meaning here. The panel discussion afterwards explored these questions for grant-making and programme practice. A heartfelt thank-you to the Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen for the invitation and to everyone who enriched the discussion.
