Volunteering

I have been volunteering in different organizations. It has shaped my youth and my mind and it is accompanying my until today. I have volunteered for five years at Greenpeace (“leader” of local youth group), followed by different engagements at terre des hommes. In 2020, I founded the initiative Unser Dialog with Sara-Estelle Gößwein. Recently, I started working on the charity conference AI Helps Ukraine.

Unser Dialog

We try to make a dialogue between all kinds of people possible: First we learn together with experts about a certain topic, then we share our perspectives and subsequently we act effectively and united on concrete problems that were found during our dialogue. That way we would like to depolarize our debate culture.

Currently, we are putting forward Our Dialogue About AI - a series where the general public can learn about AI and become empowered: “Your perspective on AI matters!”. We would like this to become the starting point for a citizen forum on AI since our vision is that the general public will be actively included into AI decision making in the years to come.

In 2022, we were the first non-profit social startup to receive the Mila Startup status. We are very grateful for the funding and the support we receive by Mila! I am glad to see how Mila supports me in giving something back to our society this way.

AI Helps Ukraine

I personally believe that the best way the AI community can support Ukraine right now, is by providing financial support. This is why we are organizing the “AI Helps Ukraine - Charity Conference”, a conference that raises money to support Ukraine with medical and humanitarian aid. Some of the most outstanding AI researchers, including Yoshua Bengio, Regina Barzilay, Max Welling, Timnit Gebru and Anna Goldenberg are supporting our cause as speakers.

One detrimental aspect of the war has been its effect on medical supplies. My friends at Mila learned about this disastrous situation firsthand from their friends and families in Ukraine. I know from personal experience how much one’s life can depend on the right medical supply and I wish that everyone in Ukraine has access to this.

A big part of the money will be used to buy medication and medical gear urgently needed to treat cancer patients. We collaborate with UAMS to deliver those to local hospitals and the National Cancer Institute of Ukraine.

The conference is free of charge because we believe that knowledge about AI For Good topics should be accessible to anyone. Everyone is welcome to the conference and we encourage everyone to give what they can. We especially built on the support of tech and pharma companies to reach our goal. Let’s stand up for Ukraine - together as a tech community.