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AI for Change is a volunteer-led nonprofit working to make responsible AI part of the decisions that affect people’s lives.
We are seeking $7,000 to organise a small working event during Slush week in Helsinki and support two organisers’ participation in the conference. The funding would cover two Slush tickets, seven nights of accommodation for the project lead, venue hire, catering and basic delivery expenses.
We want to bring together approximately 20–25 people from AI safety, responsible AI organisations, policy and the startup community. Our purpose is to identify practical work they can do together on assessing AI risks and making safer deployment decisions.
We have spent several months developing the event and seeking partners. One promising partnership did not progress within the time available because of the organisation’s internal planning processes. We currently have no funding secured for this project.
Our goal is to help people working on AI safety and governance build useful working relationships with people developing, adopting and funding AI.
The event will focus on three questions:
What evidence should organisations seek before deploying increasingly capable AI systems?
When should identified risks lead to additional safeguards, external evaluation or a decision to delay deployment?
What could participants work on together after the event to improve these decisions?
Before Slush week, we will approach relevant organisations, arrange targeted meetings and invite participants with complementary expertise. We will seek input from an advanced AI safety practitioner when developing the discussion agenda.
During the week, we will hold a facilitated working session and use our Slush attendance for meetings connected to its objectives. Suvianna will lead the programme and partnership discussions. Jonna will support event coordination, documentation and follow-up.
Aura Salla has agreed to speak at our planned event; her availability for the final date and format needs to be reconfirmed.
Within 30 days, we aim to publish a short public briefing and develop two collaboration plans with participating organisations. Each plan should identify a problem, a responsible lead and a concrete next step.
The intended contribution to AI safety is modest but practical: helping organisations use relevant safety expertise in real decisions and making the lessons available beyond the room.
We will assess success through participation, outputs and follow-through:
Approximately 20–25 relevant participants attend the working event.
At least six substantive meetings take place during the week with organisations relevant to the project.
A public briefing is published within 30 days, setting out the main governance questions, practical lessons and unresolved issues.
We aim to develop two collaboration plans with named leads and agreed next steps.
A follow-up after 30 days records which actions have actually started.
Attendance alone will not demonstrate impact. We will ask participants what was useful, what they intend to do differently and whether the event led to a working relationship or action that would otherwise have been unlikely.
We will report outcomes honestly, including any targets we do not achieve.
Our estimated budget is:
The total funding request is $7,000, allocated as follows:
$2,700 for two Slush conference passes for our team.
$2,100 for seven nights of accommodation, at approximately $300 per night.
$1,000 for venue hire for the working event.
$800 for catering and refreshments.
$250 for domestic travel and local transport.
$150 for event materials and documentation.
The conference passes support participant outreach and meetings with potential collaborators.
All costs are estimates. Ticket availability and supplier prices will be checked before committing funds. No salaries or volunteer payments are included.
Suvianna Grecu, founder and chair of AI for Change, will lead the project, programme development and partnership work. Jonna Aaja, our event and media lead, will support coordination, documentation and follow-up. They are supported by AI for Change’s wider volunteer team.
Our relevant experience includes organising our 2025 summit with IBM Finland and Suvianna’s facilitation of an AI governance session at the European Commission’s PolyFutures event in 2026.
This experience gives us a foundation in bringing people together across organisational and professional boundaries. Our role in this project is to convene and facilitate. We will draw on participating specialists for substantive AI safety expertise.
Further information about our work: https://aifcf.org/
The main risks are receiving funding too late, being unable to secure tickets or a suitable venue, changes in speaker availability, and difficulty attracting the right participants during a busy event week.
We will reduce these risks by checking availability before committing funds, prioritising direct invitations and confirming the programme as early as possible. The working session should remain useful even if an individual speaker becomes unavailable.
There is also a risk that the event produces good discussion without meaningful follow-up. We will address this by asking participants to identify specific next steps and responsible leads, then checking progress after the event.
If essential arrangements cannot be secured, we will update funders before making material changes to the project and agree how any unspent funding should be handled.
We currently have no funding. Our team’s preparation has been voluntary and unpaid.
There are no bids on this project.