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Find similar grantsAI for Individual Rights Grants is sponsored by Human Rights Foundation. The Human Rights Foundation offers "AI for Individual Rights Grants" to open-source developers, educators, and tool-builders. The program's goal is to enable dissidents under dictatorships to utilize safe, privacy-protecting AI tools.
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AI for Individual Rights - Human Rights Foundation This program is the world’s first to expose artificial intelligence used by autocrats as tools of repression and support open-source AI tools in the hands of dissidents, especially those oppressed under tyranny.
This program comes at a moment where AI tools made by Chinese actors with connections to the CCP are some of the most performant in the world, displacing tools made by corporations and associations inside liberal democracies. This is also a time when open-source AI tools have never been more powerful, and the opportunities to use AI tools to strengthen the work that dissidents do inside authoritarian regimes have never been greater.
There are many existing “AI ethics” working groups, associations, nonprofits, industry papers, and centers, but zero have a focus on authoritarian regimes. Many are bought off by the Chinese government and refuse to criticize the CCP’s role in using AI for repression in the Uyghur region, in Tibet, in Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Others are influenced by the Saudi or Russian governments and hold their tongue on too many issues.
Others still are very close to the US government and must mind a different set of political alliances. HRF’s program is fully independent. Critically, this program is not oriented toward preventing “superintelligence” risk or concerned with an AGI becoming catastrophically powerful.
While those might be worthy efforts, this program is entirely focused on tracking and challenging how authoritarian regimes are using AI and helping spark the proliferation of open-source tools that can empower and liberate individuals.
AI for Individual Rights Toolkit Use a VPN to Hide Your IP Address To protect your privacy when browsing the internet, including the use of AI tools, we recommend using a reputable VPN service such as Proton VPN , Obscura , or Mullvad to hide your IP address when using AI tools. Political dissidents, activists, and nonprofits are wise to be careful with sensitive information.
A good heuristic when using centralized platforms like ChatGPT is “Don’t type any queries that you don’t want to show up in the newspaper”. Here are privacy protecting and open source AI tools to ensure greater privacy.
Maple AI : Privacy protecting AI assistant Ollama : Application to run open source AI assistants on your desktop or laptop Running AI agents on your local device is privacy preserving so long as they’re not granted “tool use” capabilities . Once a local AI agent is granted tool use capabilities (allowed to read your local files) your personal files are vulnerable to surveillance.
A good heuristic for improved privacy is for AI tools to be “offline and local”. Use Permissionless Pay-Per-Query AI PayPerQ : Use leading AI assistants without needing to create an account, and make payment with Bitcoin or Bitcoin’s scaling solution Lightning, credit card, or other methods. Vibe Coding for Human Rights “Vibe coding” allows individuals without any coding experience to code.
It is a paradigm-shifting technological moment where, finally, non-technical users can quickly build websites, apps, event tools, and other digital assets essential for nonprofit operations. Try it yourself: The best way to understand and leverage vibe coding’s potential is to personally experiment with it. Replit , Lovable , and v0 are excellent cloud-based tools available now.
Freedom Tech AI Tools for Developers Open Agents : Take a deep dive into this open source tool for developing applications, websites, and other digital tools. Shakespeare : Easily build websites and applications on nostr, with no coding experience needed! Use a browser like Brave for easy to use plug and play privacy.
For highly sensitive information, consider using Tor Browser . Use Signal for texting and calling, which provides end-to-end encryption on communications. How can AI be used to repress?
Regimes are using AI tools to help “predict” who might be a criminal. In societies where criticizing the government is a crime, this can lead to stronger police states Together with swarms of cameras, AI systems can track citizens in real-time and give governments unprecedented control over the public square.
Tracking of ethnic minorities The CCP is pioneering the use of AI tools to track and surveil ethnic minorities, and to impose new real-time restrictions on them and any dissidents. Popular AI phone agents are disclosing a lot more information about users than might originally be thought . How can AI be used to liberate?
Open-source, privacy protecting agents If a smartphone is a Library of Alexandria in one’s pocket, then an AI tool can be a Fortune 500 company in one’s pocket. But these agents must be accessible, safe, and secure for people inside dictatorships.
Even current AI apps (especially vibe coding tools) are strong enough to dramatically expand the amount of work, research, and education that nonprofits can execute, assuming activists know how to use them properly.
Virtually every nonprofit should know how to create super-prompts to help with research and communications, and many could benefit hugely from learning about how AI tools can expedite and scale translation, video production, and data analysis. Freedom tech infrastructure AI tools can be paired with Freedom Tech protocols like Bitcoin and nostr to ensure that anyone can safely and securely access the world’s best intelligence.
AI for Individual Rights Summit HRF is gathering pioneering individuals from the AI and freedom spaces for a 3-day, invitation-only summit in San Francisco later this year. AI for Individual Rights Research HRF is supporting research into how dictatorships are abusing AI tools.
AI for Individual Rights Grants HRF is making grants to open-source developers, educators, and tool-builders making it possible for dissidents under dictatorship to use safe, privacy-protecting AI tools. AI for Individual Rights Education HRF is creating a course available in person and online for human rights defenders and non-profits so they can best equip themselves with world-class AI knowledge and tools.
Explore HRF's AI for Individual Rights booth at SXSW 2026 Apply for a grant to advance AI as a tool of freedom.
HRF Sponsors Second Edition of AI Hack for Freedom in Nashville, TN, May 9–10 HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #9 HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #8 HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #7 HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #6 Announcing the AI Hack for Freedom Hackathon Winners Join our AI for Individual Rights Newsletter Each month we’ll share a concise roundup of the world’s most important AI stories exploring how dictators are using AI tools to repress and how open-source AI tools are being developed to resist tyranny.
This program comes at a moment where AI tools made by Chinese actors with connections to the CCP are some of the most performant in the world, displacing tools made by corporations and associations inside liberal democracies. Art is a powerful tool for dissent in closed societies, provoking constructive dialogue and creating space for debate beyond mainstream bodies of political discourse.
Authoritarian governments around the world recognize the power of art as a conduit of change and systematically persecute, repress, or censor artists to silence political dissent. All governments, especially those of dictators, frequently debase, manipulate, demonetize, and surveil currencies, confiscate property, and freeze the bank accounts of people they don’t like.
Dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, and nonprofit organizations in authoritarian countries face enormous obstacles just to receive donations and pay bills. So for many years, North Korean defectors have organized efforts to smuggle outside info into North Korea on USB drives to counter Kim Jong-un’s constant propaganda. Hit enter to search or ESC to close Join the cause by subscribing to our newsletter.
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According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Open-source developers, educators, and tool-builders focused on creating safe, privacy-protecting AI tools for dissidents under dictatorships. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
AI for Individual Rights Grants is funded by Human Rights Foundation. Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
DRL's Global Rapid Response Fund, DFOP0019705, closes August 31, 2026 with a single award of $9,569,050 and subgrants of $10,000 to $100,000. Only 40 percent of the award can flow through as subgrants, which means the majority of a rapid-response fund is not rapid-response money at all. Here is how to read that, and who is actually built to win it.
Read articleThe Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has opened NOFO DFOP0019327, a $2.96 million single-award competition to build a global coalition countering transnational repression — the practice of governments reaching across borders to silence dissidents, journalists, and diaspora communities. Applications from nonprofits, think tanks, and NGOs are due August 12, 2026. Here is what transnational repression is, what DRL is actually buying, who is eligible, and how to build a competitive proposal for a winner-take-all award.
Read articleOn August 26, 2026, NSF named the STC class of 2026: TEMPEST at Michigan State, GENIE at Northwestern, and a human-robot co-adaptation center at UT Austin. $90 million total, $6 million a year each. The 2023 class was four centers and $120 million. The award size is intact; the shelf space shrank 25 percent — and that is the number that should reshape how you plan a center proposal.
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