From AI to Institute: We have a new name!
We have renamed from AI for All Tomorrows to the All Tomorrows Institute!
Dylan here. When I founded this organization a little less than a year ago I had no idea it was going to grow so quickly. I was wrapping up my PhD, had just lost my future job due to federal funding cuts, and was looking to do... something. So I started a media project called AI-tocracy in which I wanted to take an aggressively political stance towards big tech resistance. I did what I usually do when I don't know what I'm doing and I started a podcast. But in speaking to folks like Baratunde Thurston, Nabiha Syed, David Ryan Polgar, and Vilas Dhar I realized that resistance was only a small part of the story.
I realized that people were hungry for levity, joy, and new beginnings with the stories we tell about technology -- tools to change the hype/horror narratives that were beating them down every day. People wanted to dream bigger. And so I rebranded the organization as AI for All Tomorrows.
In rebranding, I also realized that I didn't want to just do another side project, I wanted to build something much bigger. The goal was what it always was - do good in tech through liberatory storytelling. However, I didn't really know where to begin.
So I built a team who was willing to throw things at the wall, fail in fun ways, and do some co-dreaming with me. Folks such as Maria Paola Silva, William Liem, Alexandra Bejarano, Alex Sarkissian, Kira Warren, and Emma Nicotra, who make up our board and staff.
We formed a 501c3, and began to build partnerships with wonderful folks such as The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, AI4ALL, All Tech Is Human, and more recently getting to know some of the most incredible leaders in tech storytelling over at The Rithm Project, (m)otherboard, The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), The Maybe, The Mozilla Foundation, and others.
But in all of these conversations, something kept bothering me about our organizational identity. I was always worried that our name was so focused on AI that it obscured the other parts of our mission. In the context of the AI narratives we wanted to reimagine I felt as if our name was too defined by what we wanted to disrupt. AI is certainly a pivotal part of the contemporary tech landscape. However, our leadership team and I realized that our core dream is to focus on the stories of people, and that our name should reflect that dream.
It was time for one last change.
We have officially rebranded as the All Tomorrows Institute. We are a storytelling organization that uses art, podcasts, documentaries, empirical research, and strategic collaboration, to work with communities from around the world to highlight ideas and initiatives that move technology toward more equitable and inspiring possibilities.
The name is new, but the mission is the same. I can't wait to see what comes next for our growing team and thank you to everyone who has supported the journey thus far!
Dylan Thomas Doyle, PhD
Executive Director
All Tomorrows Institute