Our country is experiencing ever-deepening lines of division, incivility, and, at times, violence. Most of us sense that technology bears part of the blame. But here’s the good news: beyond the doom-laden headlines, a growing wave of innovation is proving that social media and AI can be reimagined as forces for connection rather than conflict—and as tools for generating shared understanding, not fractured realities. Join us for a hands-on tech showcase and discussion with several innovators based right here in Silicon Valley who are lighting the path towards a more peaceful, pluralistic, and democratic future for all of us … powered by prosocial technologies.

The Institute's Accelerator Fellowship Programme present this public panel discussion featuring a range of international experts.

As AI reshapes our worlds, who decides its future—and who gets left behind? Welcome to Cooperative AI, the first global conference on cooperatives and artificial intelligence, staged during the United Nations’ International Year of Cooperatives. Throughout history, societies have grappled with how to balance technology with social equity. In the early 19th century, the Luddites resisted industrial machines—not out of opposition to technology itself, but in protest against how it was used to undermine workers’ livelihoods and concentrate power in the hands of factory owners. A few decades later, the Rochdale Pioneers laid the foundation for cooperative enterprise, offering a model for democratic ownership in a speedily industrializing world. Now, at another turning point, with artificial intelligence advancing in ways that are both pervasive and uneven, this conference asks: Will AI be governed by a few, or can worker-led models inspire its development to serve the many?