Our Story
Over the last fifteen years, Elliot has been working with governments, the UN and the EU on counter-terrorism, particularly focusing on online radicalisation. He worked in the Home Office on drawing up the Prevent Duty, and followed this by training governments through the UN and the EU on developing strategic responses to digital hate, radicalisation and extremism,
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His most recent piece of work was writing the EU's position paper for member states on the use of AI for counter-terrorism and prevention of radicalisation, following the introduction of the EU's AI Act.​ This work drew into sharp relief the need for an increase in ethical literacy around the challenges of AI.
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As well as working with a government-driven approach, Elliot decided that other organisations within society may well be far better equipped to have these conversations with AI's most prominent users - be that employees in a work setting or students at school. The provision of an ethically focused AI training is something unique to our offering, to those seeking to explore the impact this new technology will have.
Tom is a teacher with fifteen years of experience at some of the UK's most prestigious schools. Working with Elliot they devised a bespoke package of support and training on AI Ethical Literacy specifically for schools. Tom recognised, from his work as an English teacher, the crossover with the critical thinking that is offered by many subjects and which is one of the key focuses of the new government's curriculum review.
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As a team, they have broad experience of training within small, medium and large organisations, from leadership, to management to front line practitioners. Together, they will explore the ethical questions which lie ahead, how this will impact your strategy, tactical delivery and day-to-day operations, reflecting on how AI will also impact our society itself. The focus is to better articulate your values, helping you use your own core principles to address these novel challenges.
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Why now?​
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Many of the digital literacy projects set up by the government and social media in response to the crises from 2014 onwards are yet to address AI.
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Where training does exist this has focused on AI as a tool, how AI works and where AI may add value. Coupled with this, many people are are aware, either through the news, research or sci-films of potential dangers of AI - even if this is often exaggerated and not reflecting todays realities of what the tech can and cannot do. The existing training does not focus on the impact in a practical way, and the real ethical questions organisations are going to have to address in its development and deployment.
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Society is at an important inflection point. AI is rapidly playing a larger and larger role in our lives, and organisations are uncertain how to address it.
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This is the gap we fill. ​
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We don't have all the answers and we are only beginning to build a full resource bank. However, we believe that an explicitly ethical approach is a safe and secure way of posing and grappling with the problems of AI.
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Elliot Grainger & Tom Barfield
Founders, AI Ethical Literacy
Who we work with
In person training
If we are going to reinforce the value of interpersonal relationships and encounter in the face of disembodied communication, we prefer to deliver all our consultations and training in person. This helps to build trust immediately, which is vital when there are difficult discussions to be held.
Based on your core values
Our training and questions are based around the defence of your values and principles. However, a key element of the training is to help your organisation to further articulate and apply your own values, based on pre-existing statements, to the challenges that lie ahead.
Supporting open discussion
Our purpose is not to stoke fear about AI. We are certain that it will have many, many positive benefits. We use it ourselves. We also recognise how people will approach the role of technology in their lives from a range of perspectives. Because these are ethical discussions, there are no 'right' conclusions. Indeed, part of our purpose is hopefully to leave you with more questions than answers, and a desire to explore further.
