Introducing the AI Rights Lab
Artificial intelligence is increasingly influencing how people communicate, work, access information and interact with institutions.
Its possibilities are significant.
So are the questions it raises.
What happens when an automated system discriminates against certain groups? How should societies respond when artificial intelligence makes surveillance easier? What happens to elections and public trust when realistic synthetic content can be produced at scale? How do communities participate in decisions about technologies they did not design but which increasingly affect their lives?
These are not only technology questions.
They are human-rights questions.
This is why the Open Knowledge Development Initiative established the AI Rights Lab, a specialised initiative dedicated to ensuring that artificial intelligence and emerging digital technologies advance human rights, inclusion, democracy and the public interest.
The Lab builds on OKDI’s experience across human rights, civic space, digital rights, gender equality, open knowledge and civic technology.
Its approach is built around three actions:
RESEARCH → ADVOCATE → BUILD
Research
Understanding the impact of artificial intelligence requires evidence.
The Lab will explore how AI affects areas including privacy, freedom of expression, discrimination, gender equality, civic participation, elections, surveillance, access to justice and public services.
Research will help identify both emerging risks and opportunities, particularly from the perspective of African communities and civil society.
Advocate
Technology governance should not be shaped only by technology companies and governments.
Civil society, communities and people whose rights may be affected must also have a voice.
The AI Rights Lab will contribute to policy conversations, develop evidence-based recommendations and advocate for AI governance frameworks that protect rights while supporting responsible innovation.
Build
Critiquing technology is important, but public-interest actors should also participate in building alternatives.
The Lab will therefore explore practical digital tools that strengthen citizen participation, accountability, accessibility and civic action.
One of the early examples is NaijaWatch, a civic-tech platform developed by OKDI under the AI Rights Lab to provide everyday Nigerians with a simple way to report governance concerns and participate in public affairs.
The Lab will work across several interconnected areas, including:
- AI and Human Rights Research
- AI Policy and Advocacy
- AI Rights Observatory
- AI Literacy and Capacity Building
- Digital Innovation and Public-Interest Technology
- AI and Civic Space
- AI Rights Clinic
At the centre of all this work is a simple idea:
Technology should serve people.
Artificial intelligence will continue to evolve. The challenge for civil society is therefore not simply whether to accept or reject AI, but how to help shape the rules, institutions and technologies emerging around it.
Africa must be part of that conversation—not only as a market for technologies developed elsewhere, but as a source of ideas, research, policy thinking and innovation.
Through the AI Rights Lab, OKDI wants to contribute to that future.
A future where technological progress and human rights are not treated as competing ambitions.
A future where innovation strengthens rather than diminishes human agency.
A future built around:
People. Rights. Power. AI.