The Collaborative for AI in the Public Interest awards $500k in funding for the LSE Data Science Institute
The Collaborative for AI in the Public Interest (The Collaborative) has awarded the LSE Data Science Institute (DSI) $500,000 in funding to support a 19-month project, Shaping AI in the public interest: Building capacity and advancing the role of workers. This announcement comes as part of the London School of Economics and Political Science’s 2026 Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences.
The project will contribute to a future for AI that is aligned with the public interest. It will do this by building new research capacity at the DSI and generating new evidence on how workers across AI supply chains can contribute to greater accountability in AI development and deployment.
The project will comprise three interconnected components. The first component will develop a framework and methodology for measuring AI's effects on society over time. This work will support the development of indicators that can help policymakers, researchers, and civil society organisations better understand how AI is affecting key areas such as wellbeing, inequality, democratic participation, and worker representation.
The second component will focus on workers across AI supply chains and AI-intensive industries. The aim is to measure ‘collective capacity’, the potential of workers to influence the development and governance of AI systems. Using methodologies established in the first component, this part of the project will seek to identify the organisational arrangements and forms of collective capacity that can enable workers to act as agents of change and catalysts for accountability and public interest alignment across the AI ecosystem.
A third component supports the Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences, LSE's flagship event that convenes international dialogue at the intersection of AI and the social sciences to mobilise expertise, resources, and partnerships to ensure AI serves human and societal needs. The 2026 Forum focuses on AI and labour markets. In addition to enhancing and widening participation for the main Global Forum programme, the funding has enabled LSE to convene a half-day roundtable event on Friday 18 September dedicated to AI supply chain work. This roundtable will consider the production of AI systems across software and hardware value chains, and the potential of workers and worker voice as a factor in shaping AI development. It will seek to surface key opportunities and priorities for collaboration and strategic intervention to inform future work at LSE and across the ecosystem more widely.
Martin Tisné, Founder and CEO of The Collaborative for AI in the Public Interest, said:
"We need to support worker power across the global AI supply chain, across mining, semiconductors, data work, labs, and deployment. What do these workers hope to contribute to the world and how? Their collective power is part of the puzzle of political alliances that can bend the arc of AI towards the public interest. The Collaborative is delighted to support and fund LSE’s research and convening capacities, which will contribute to a shared understanding of the role workers can play in ensuring the technology they build delivers outcomes that matter to people and communities, with necessary guardrails in place."
Professor Helen Margetts, Director of the DSI, said:
“AI is reshaping our world at a remarkable pace, but we still lack many of the tools needed to understand its long-term effects. This funding will enable us to build new research capacity at LSE, develop approaches for measuring AI's impact on society, and deepen our understanding of how workers across the AI supply chain can contribute to the governance and accountability of AI systems. We are immensely grateful to the Collaborative for AI in the Public Interest for supporting this work and helping to strengthen the role of social science in shaping the future of AI in a way that benefits humanity."
About The Collaborative for AI in the Public Interest
The Collaborative for AI in the Public Interest is a philanthropic organisation that mobilises focus and funding to help build, govern, and advance AI in the public interest.
About the Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences
This has been announced as part of the London School of Economics and Political Science’s 2026 Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences.
Organised by the LSE Data Science Institute, the Global Forum aims to convene international dialogue at the intersection of AI and the social sciences and to mobilise expertise, resources, and partnerships to ensure AI serves human and societal needs. The inaugural edition of the Global Forum will take place on 16 and 17 September 2026 with a thematic focus on how AI is reshaping work and what governments, firms, and workers must do to prepare for the changes ahead.