Grassroots Global BrainTrust to Advocate for Humanity
The Global BrainTrust’s formulation was finalized in Stanford in May 2024, and the brain trust was launched in Seattle in June 2024.
Diverse Coalition to Present the Human Perspective on AI Adoption
Seattle, USA – The Global BrainTrust, a grassroots coalition representing diversity of voice in the human response to artificial intelligence’s expansive adoption, has been formed to offer a human-centered perspective as the technology’s rapid and unrestrained rollout continues.
The Global BrainTrust represents viewpoints from industry and community leaders not just from different backgrounds, but from different countries as well, in an attempt to expand representation of the ‘human’ response. The brain trust actively involves GenZ, who are currently on the periphery of the debate, especially as the transformation will redefine their future.
“Artificial intelligence impacts everyone and will transform our entire world. Our aim is that viewpoints of the rest of the world are taken into consideration, not just those of technologists and policymakers in the west,” said Sana Bagersh, Founder of the Global Braintrust. “We want to make sure more people, at a grassroots level, have a voice, and that they are heard. Here we are talking about people of different ethnicities, religions, ages and socio-economic backgrounds.”
She added,” The AI debate has to date been dominated by technologists who dazzle us with the incredible transformative power of artificial intelligence, and also by policymakers who appear to be struggling to make sense of it, let alone regulate it. We deeply appreciate the tremendous positive impact of AI on human life, but our aim with The Global BrainTrust is to present the voice ‘on the ground’, of ‘Everyman’ and ‘Everywoman,’ so to speak, who are being affected by it in their lives. We know such representation is ambitious and may not be entirely possible, but we intend to come as close as we can to doing it.”
This brain trust aims to share its insights through statements, and communiques, about the issues being experienced at the user level, to help those in power address the concerns of the consortium, and mitigate the risks associated with AI’s rapid deployment and proliferation.
Professor Ahmed Banafa, the Global Braintrust’s Senior Technology Advisor explained further: “This is an early phase advocacy mobilization, a great mechanism for drawing input from a wide range of stakeholders, from different nations, that include technologists, practitioners, developers, policymakers, builders, shapers, artists, designers, and community champions. This diverse assembly of voices and perspectives will grow in size to reinforce representation. It will hopefully be a great resource to access balanced and diverse viewpoints on critical AI-related issues impacting people.”
He explained that the coalition will share user-side insights that prioritize human welfare and societal benefit. Among the topics currently under review by the brain trust include the potential damage caused by AI hallucinations to businesses and individuals; the breadth and impact of imminent job losses; early warnings that AI could potentially deceive humans; and the erratic regulatory approach to safeguard AI.
Gabriella Kohlberg, Government Development Economics Advisor at the Global BrainTrust said, “We are humanity, and we want to ensure our world will prosper on this transformative journey towards a better future that we will hopefully leave to our children. This brain trust is intended to leverage the collective wisdom of users, and our aim is to provide valuable input to public and private sector stakeholders.”
Katherine Shulock, Public Health Advisor at the Global BrainTrust added, “The BrainTrust invites collaboration. Through engaging community-minded leaders from diverse fields and industries, we hope to bring a human-centered and equity lens to critical conversations around AI today.”
For more information about the Global BrainTrust, visit www.globalbraintrust.us, email contact@globalbraintrust.us, or 206-488-8018 (call/ Whatsapp)
About Sana Bagersh, Founder, The Global Braintrust
Sana Bagersh is a senior executive who, because of her own multi-cultural background, is an active interculturalist and bridge-builder. She has extensive international marketing experience of projects executed in Africa, Europe, the USA and the Arabian Gulf, and derives her sense of purpose from her social impact work.
Bagersh set up The Global Braintrust in response to what she sees as a need for everyday people from across the globe to be part of the AI conversation. She is champion for women, marginalized youth, and the elderly, and is an ardent advocate for interculturalism, diversity, compassionate leadership, sustainability, community building, collaboration, and human-centered technology. She works actively on the social impact platforms she has created over the years.
She established Tamakkan in 2009 to support entrepreneurs by providing free seminars and workshops for small businesses to learn, connect and flourish. See www.tamakkan.com Bagersh, whose early career was as journalist, formed Tempo magazine, also in the year 2009, to complement Tamakkan’s learning-focused trajectory. The magazine (which is fully online now) promotes small businesses, especially those involved in social impact space, and ‘celebrates everyday people doing extraordinary things.” It also focuses on furthering cultural understanding. www.feelyourtempo.com Recognizing the importance of grassroots action and the power of user-generated short videos using cellphones to amplify goodness, she launched The Smovies to run public-good short film challenges. www.thesmovies.com
In response to the Covid disruption, Bagersh was cocooned with her family on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where she wrote “What a Leader Should Be’ about the need for compassionate and decisive leadership to mitigate global crises. She also launched World4Good to promotes blueprints to build a better world and believes collaboration between nations and institutions; principled leadership; and community action. www.world4good.org
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About Professor Ahmed Banafa, Senior Technology Advisor, The Global BrainTrust
Prof. Ahmed Banafa is a distinguished expert in IoT, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and AI with a strong background in research, operations, and management. He has been recognized for his outstanding contributions, receiving the Certificate of Honor from the City and County of San Francisco, the Haskell Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the Author & Artist Award from San Jose State University. LinkedIn named him the No.1 tech voice to follow in 2018, acknowledging his predictive insights and influence. His groundbreaking research has been featured in renowned publications like Nature, Forbes, IEEE, and the MIT Technology Review. He has been interviewed by major media outlets including ABC, CBS, NBC, Bloomberg, BBC, NPR, NHK, and FOX. Being a member of the MIT Technology Review Global Panel further highlights his prominence in the tech community.
Prof. Banafa is an accomplished author known for impactful books. His work “Secure and Smart Internet of Things (IoT) using Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI)” earned him the San Jose State University Author and Artist Award and recognition as one of the Best Technology Books of All Time and Best AI Models Books of All Time. His book on “Blockchain Technology and Applications” also received acclaim and is integrated into curricula at prestigious institutions like Stanford University. Additionally, he has contributed significantly to Quantum Computing through his third book, and he is preparing to release his fourth book on Artificial Intelligence in 2023. Prof. Banafa’s educational journey includes Cybersecurity studies at Harvard University and Digital Transformation studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he is holding a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence.
Technology Waves by Prof. Ahmed Banafa Ahmed Banafa on Linkedin
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Gabriella Kohlberg, Government Development Economics Advisor at The Global BrainTrust
Gabriella is a leading strategist and advisor to governments, corporate and startup entities and ecosystems. She has been one of the youngest individuals in foreign government senior advisory positions and acquired a significant amount of hands-on experience across over 65 developing and developed countries across the world. With backgrounds in international economics, marketing, data, governance, legal and finance she has a wealth of exposure, knowledge, creativity and connectivity into these worlds and bridging the gaps between different parts of their world with their individual realities and needs. With a strong ethical underpinning and holistic risk analysis skill set, she ensures that humanity’s wellbeing comes in priority to profit for sustainable business development and growth strategy towards a better future.
Gabriella Kohlberg on Linkedin
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Katherine Shulock, Public Health Advisor at The Global BrainTrust
Katherine Shulock, MPH, is a public health professional specializing in managing complex public health projects with an interdisciplinary approach. Katherine is a skilled researcher and grant writer in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), and contributed to building and managing a Youth Clinic in Botswana and publishing research to advance ASRH in Namibia, Kenya, and Mozambique. During the COVID response, Katherine created platforms for public health professionals to connect on COVID-19 issues across Washington State, USA, and generated user-friendly, useful and equitable COVID-19 policy. Katherine holds a BA in Global Women’s Studies from Western Washington University and an MPH in Global Health from the University of Washington. Passionate about creating a more just and user-friendly world, Katherine hopes to bring equity and human-centered design principles to AI conversations.
