FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
Do you have a question about the Power to Shape Public AI CSO Conversation? You’ll find answers here about how it worked, who it was for, and what participants could expect.
What is the Power to Shape CSO Conversation all about?
Power to Shape: CSO Voices on AI is an open online conversation for civil society organisations (CSOs) to share their experiences, challenges, and ideas around how AI is used in public services. By contributing, you’ll help co-create a framework and agenda for action to strengthen civil society’s influence on AI governance. The outputs will be shared with all participants, feed into an academic paper and, if successful, be presented at a multi-stakeholder workshop within the UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of AI 2025 and/or other similar conferences.
What is a Clever Together 'Conversation'?
A Clever Together Conversation is a large-scale online engagement hosted on a safe, anonymous platform. It allows people to share ideas, respond to others, and vote on the contributions they find valuable. Hosted by Clever Together, it is designed to capture the collective wisdom of CSOs working to shape AI for the public good.
Who is behind the Power to Shape Conversation?
This initiative is led by a collaboration of civil society, academic, and policy experts in responsible AI and participatory governance. It is hosted and facilitated by Clever Together, using their trusted Conversations methodology.
Why is this Conversation happening now?
This initiative emerged as a voluntary, best-effort collaboration among researchers and participatory AI governance practitioners, following the Participatory AI Research & Practice Symposium on the side-lines of the 2025 Paris AI Action Summit. The Summit highlighted a persistent gap: while civil society was visible, its influence remained limited. The Power to Shape conversation responds to the need for increased CSO influence by offering a space for reflection and collective sense-making – at the halfway point between the 2025 and 2026 AI Summits.
Why this format?
The Clever Together platform allows you to participate in a psychologically safe context, from any device, and in your own words. You can read others’ contributions, vote on ideas, and add your voice to a global civil society perspective. This format helps gather meaningful insights that traditional surveys or closed consultations often miss.
Why is the Conversation anonymous?
Anonymity helps create a safe and open space for honest reflection and exchange. By removing names and organisational identifiers, we reduce bias and make it easier for ideas to be judged on their merit, not on who shared them. This is especially important when people are sharing uncertainties, critiques, or emerging thinking. Anonymity supports psychological safety, helping participants speak freely across hierarchies, geographies, and roles. It also helps to surface a broader range of perspectives, including those that might otherwise go unheard.
Where and when is the Conversation taking place?
The conversation took place from 23 May 2025 and was be hosted the Clever Together digital platform. It was open for three weeks and kicked off with an initial ACTIVE half-day co-creation phase. Once participants registered, they received login details by email. Participation was anonymous and easy to access on desktop or mobile.
What will happen as a result of the Conversation?
Participants' input helped shape a common understanding, and framework for action to strengthen CSO advocacy, engagement, and influence on AI governance in public services. The outcomes are published openly for all to leverage, as well as feeding into future global projects supporting civil society leadership in this space.
Who can get involved?
The Conversation was open to representatives of civil society organisations and academics, especially those working on public interest, human rights, social justice, and AI-related issues, whether locally or internationally. We were interested in a diverse, global representation of civil society voices. To provide a safe space for deep co-creation, funders, corporate representatives or public officials were not invited to the Conversation.