Tactical Tech

In a time where democratic institutions are under pressure and AI-generated disinformation is reshaping public discourse, the organisations defending human rights, the environment and social justice need collective action to counter negative narratives and keep pace.

On October 15, Greenpeace International will host the 3rd INGO DX Conference, and we're calling on NGO leaders, registered charities and civil society practitioners who are building real solutions in this space to join us.

Tactical Tech will facilitate one of the interactive workshops by bringing its expertise in digital safety, information manipulation and accountability to the table.

This is a free, online conference. If you work in the development or nonprofit sector, your voice and perspective matter.

📅 Apply to contribute by 23 September here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUaXQuZEY3NJx0KDqOc8QizfoJ7dT2SupK2dZTmMGDl9SLUg/viewform

On 15 October, Greenpeace International hosts the 3rd INGO Digital Transformation Conference.

Tactical Tech will facilitate a free, online interactive workshop as part of this full day virtual event. The conference theme is "Leveraging the non profit sector's collective power in times of democratic crisis, AI and misinformation".

We are calling for contributions from NGO leaders, charity practitioners and civil society organisations. Whether you want to be a speaker, session facilitator or share session ideas, we need your input!

Submit your expression of interest by 23 September here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUaXQuZEY3NJx0KDqOc8QizfoJ7dT2SupK2dZTmMGDl9SLUg/viewform

🪞 Your voice, your face, your body, even your personality: all of it can now be recreated, altered, or faked entirely.

This poster, part of The Glass Room exhibition, walks through six ways deepfake and AI technology can reshape how we're seen and remembered. From video filters that already put people's faces into compromising situations, to the unsettling question of whether we'll one day build digital versions of ourselves to outlive us.

💭 This exhibition gives people a physical space to sit with these questions and think critically about the technology shaping their digital lives. It comes in several formats and is available to host at your organisation, school, or event.

Book The Glass Room here: https://tacticaltech.org/projects/the-glass-room/

Your watch counts your steps, your heartbeats, your sleep. Helpful, right?

Most of us carry devices that quietly track where we go, what we do and how we feel. Ambient, mobility, behavioural and biometric intelligence are shaping our lives, often without us noticing.

The Covid-19 pandemic pushed tracking technologies into the mainstream. Many of them are still with us today, and many rely on collecting data about us, often without us knowing.

Our Technologies of Hope and Fear project explores where these tools come from and what they mean for daily life. Explore it here: https://techpandemic.theglassroom.org/ #

If you're interested in organising one of our impactful educational activations or experiences, we offer tailored solutions to support your goals and maximise your impact: https://tacticaltech.org/our-services/

This week the Tactical Tech team is reading the article “AI is flooding the online book market with poor translations — here’s how to spot them” by Terry Bradford, Lecturer in French and Translation, University of Leeds, published on “The Conversation”.

He explains how AI translations happen, and why they are not ideologically neutral. He also shares easy ways to spot an AI translation. One warning sign is when the author has published a huge number of books since AI tools became available, or when the same author seems to be prolific with many languages at once.

Read the full article here: https://theconversation.com/ai-is-flooding-the-online-book-market-with-poor-translations-heres-how-to-spot-them-288166

The people around you didn't sign up to be recorded. Meta's smart glasses can capture photos, video and audio anywhere. Everyone except the wearer is in someone's data stream, and nobody around them gets a say.

🏠Meanwhile, when Mark Zuckerberg wanted privacy for himself, he spent $40 million buying the four houses surrounding his own in Palo Alto, then had workers sign NDAs before touching a single wall.

This begs the question: who can afford privacy, and at what cost?

At Tactical Tech, we want people to think about what happens to their data when engaging online. Through interactive exhibitions, we give people and organisations the opportunity to engage with their digital reality IRL.

This poster from The Glass Room shows exactly what happens to our data when we opt in for our consent without much critical thinking.

💭 The Glass Room is our exhibition on data and privacy, designed to make these everyday trade-offs visible and easier to talk about.

It comes in several formats, from a full exhibition space to a portable version that fits in libraries, schools, and events.

Explore The Glass Room exhibition here:https://www.theglassroom.org/exhibits/data-day/ or write us at [email protected]

Don't fall in love with AI. It might be lying to you.

The friendly, frictionless and kind AI interface is hiding its real face. Chatbots don't think. They just predict the next likely word — like a very powerful autocomplete. And behind those predictions: statistics, data, raw materials and exploitative labour.

It's tempting to believe what you want to hear. But remember how these tools actually work when you decide how to engage with them.

Our Hello AI! exhibition gives participants a physical space to reflect on their digital reality.

See the full exhibition and how to host it: https://tacticaltech.org/artificial-intelligence-and-us/ or write to us: [email protected]

Investment by the GAFAM Empire (Google, Amazon, Facebook/Meta and Microsoft) can decide whether an entire sector sinks or swims.

Our researchers broke down thousands of acquisitions made over the past 20 years, sector by sector.

Microsoft went big on gaming with Xbox. Apple doubled down on hardware, plus a surprising cluster of education companies. Google and Facebook took a different path: building up social media, with occasional dips into hardware.

See the full research on the GAFAM Empire: https://gafam.theglassroom.org/ -gafam-petri-dishes