In this workshop, academicians and practitioners will work together to explore the role of generative AI in civil society organizing, analyzing its challenges and opportunities for grassroots communities and organizations in different political systems, ranging from liberal democracies to authoritarian regimes. Today, a flurry of reports from leading corporations create both hype and fear around the potential implications of generative AI. At the same time, contemporary practitioner-oriented reports focused on civil society organizing try to provide guidance in a fast-developing field, addressing the need for a responsible and accountable AI in grassroots communities and organizations. By bringing together scholars from various disciplines working on generative AI - including management and organization theory, civil society and social movement studies, communication and media researchers, as well as scholars of democracy and political participation - and enabling them to convene with engaged practitioners in the field, the workshop will generate a starting point for more comprehensive and much-needed research on generative AI and civil society organizing. It will do so by addressing implications of AI at individual, organizational, and field levels, as well as considering the implications of generative AI in the broader geopolitical contexts in which it is used. Moving beyond a simplified view of AI related to safety and/or organizational efficiency, the workshop will critically examine the threats that generative AI poses to civil society organizing, as well as considering opportunities it brings for civil society actors in different types of political systems, ranging from liberal democracies to authoritarian regimes.
