Public AI

ClimateGPT is a Webby Nominee. Vote Before 16 April.

/ / Events, Public AI

Most AI tools are black boxes. You do not know what they were trained on, who decided what counts as reliable, or whether the answers they produce can be checked against anything. ClimateGPT 3+ is built on a different premise: that climate intelligence must be open, auditable, and grounded in solid data. The Webby Awards have taken notice.

ClimateGPT 3+, a project developed by Erasmus.AI and supported by Internet Archive Europe, has been nominated in the AI: Energy and Sustainability category of the 30th Annual Webby Awards. This year more than 13,000 projects entered; ClimateGPT 3+ placed in the top 11%. A People’s Voice Award, voted on by the public, is now within reach. Voting is open until 16 April 2026.

The People’s Voice Award

The Webby People’s Voice Award is voted on by anyone, anywhere. Last year nearly 3.6 million votes were cast from more than 230 countries. The award is a signal to the sector about what kind of AI the public actually values.

ClimateGPT earned this nomination by doing something most AI platforms do not. Voting for it is a vote for the principle that AI serving the climate transition should be open, accountable, and grounded in the best available science. It should not be proprietary, locked behind paywalls, or optimised for engagement over accuracy.

Vote at vote.webbyawards.com before 16 April 2026, and visit climategpt.ai to explore the tool directly.

What ClimateGPT Is, and Why It Is Different

ClimateGPT is an open-source ensemble of large language AI models built to augment human decisions on climate change. It was trained on a corpus of over 10 billion web pages and millions of open-access academic articles, synthesising interdisciplinary research across the natural, social, and economic sciences. The model is available in more than 20 languages and is free to use for researchers.

That is not a minor technical detail. The decision to make the model open source, to publish the training data lineage, and to make it available at no cost means that a researcher in Nairobi can access the same climate intelligence as a policymaker in Brussels. Users range from individual practitioners to institutions like NASA.

The model benchmarks show ten times the efficiency on climate-specific tasks compared to general-purpose models, and a cascading machine translation approach that recovers nearly 94% of fluency performance relative to native multilingual models. Crucially, it was trained and is hosted on renewable energy.

Why Internet Archive Europe Supports ClimateGPT

Internet Archive Europe supports ClimateGPT because the initiative directly aligns with the mission of universal access to knowledge. ClimateGPT demonstrates that combining planetary-scale datasets with open, decentralised technology empowers citizens and governments to make better decisions. It is AI built for transparency and adaptation, not just automation.

This matters for governance as much as for science. Climate disinformation is not an abstract problem. It shapes legislation, investment decisions, and public understanding of risk. A model that is auditable, grounded in peer-reviewed sources, and built to counter disinformation rather than amplify it represents a different category of AI development from what currently dominates the market. The question of who builds AI, on what data, and for whose benefit is a political question as much as a technical one. ClimateGPT answers it in the public interest.That is what this nomination recognises. Vote to say it matters.

ClimateGPT is a Webby Nominee. Vote Before 16 April. Read Post »

Celebrating “Humans of AI”: A Journey Into Public-Interest Technology

/ / Public AI

Internet Archive Europe is proud to support the release of AI Lab Perspectives: Humans of AI, the seventh report by information labs, based on a series of expert video capsules.

This timely and thoughtful publication brings together voices from across Europe’s cultural heritage ecosystem to explore a question that could not be more important: what does it mean to build AI that truly serves the public?

As the report’s introduction makes clear, Humans of AI aims to spark informed conversation and critical reflection on how artificial intelligence is being applied within the cultural heritage sector across Europe and beyond. Through in-depth podcast conversations with libraries, museums, archives, artists, researchers, and digital platforms, the series highlights real-world projects, ethical challenges, and practical lessons that demonstrate how AI can support access, memory, and public engagement.

At Internet Archive Europe, this mission resonates deeply.

AI as Public-Interest Infrastructure

Across all ten case studies, one shared insight stands out: AI is neither a miracle nor a threat; it is a tool. Its impact depends on how it is governed, who shapes it, and whether it strengthens public knowledge and democratic access.

The projects featured in the report illustrate this principle in powerful ways:

  • Preserving History: From Transkribus turning historical manuscripts into searchable text to the National Library of Norway building language models grounded in local culture.
  • Innovating Access: Projects like Litte_bot bring literary characters to life, while the Museum Goggles initiative uses AI to help us understand how visitors truly experience art.
  • Memory & Ethics: The Synthetic Memories project uses AI to reconstruct lost personal histories, and Europeana uses it to identify and contextualise contested colonial terms in metadata.
  • The Web of the Past: We are especially thrilled to see Kai Jauslin’s work on the Websites van Nederland project, part of the Webarchiving Display of the Internet Archive Europe. This initiative transforms massive web archives into interactive “fields of stars,” making born-digital heritage tangible and explorable for the public.

For us, the themes of openness, shared ownership, multilingual access, ethical governance, and human oversight are not abstract ideals. They are foundational principles. We believe that digital heritage, including the web itself, belongs to everyone. AI, when responsibly developed, can help ensure that these collections remain explorable, meaningful, and usable for generations to come.

Bringing Collections to Life — Responsibly

One of the most inspiring aspects of Humans of AI is its refusal to fall into hype or fear. The report consistently underscores that the real challenges around AI are social and institutional—adoption, governance, trust, and long-term sustainability—rather than purely technical.

From reconstructing lost memories through guided conversations to using AI-powered eye-tracking to better understand museum engagement to enriching metadata across millions of records, the report shows that AI’s greatest value lies in supporting human interpretation, not replacing it.

This aligns closely with Internet Archive Europe’s commitment to:

  • Preserving digital memory at scale
  • Supporting open data and open-source innovation
  • Making archives explorable, not hidden
  • Ensuring that public knowledge is not mediated exclusively through private platforms

AI can help bring collections to life, but only if it remains grounded in public interest, transparency, and shared stewardship.

Looking Ahead: The Second Series of Case Studies

We are especially proud to see the breadth and diversity of contributors in this first edition, from national libraries and global open-source communities to artists and experimental designers. The range of voices reflects the richness of Europe’s cultural and digital heritage ecosystem.

Internet Archive Europe looks forward with great anticipation to the second series of Humans of AI case studies. Continued documentation of practical, ethical, and public-interest applications of AI will be essential in shaping a European approach that is confident, values-driven, and collaborative.

By amplifying real-world examples rather than abstract speculation, this series provides policymakers, cultural institutions, and technologists with something invaluable: grounded insight.

Celebrating “Humans of AI”: A Journey Into Public-Interest Technology Read Post »

Davos Event Spotlight: Launching ClimateGPT 3 and the Future of Public Good AI

/ / Events, Public AI

On 22 January, at Goals House Davos, ClimateGPT 3 will be officially launched during a roundtable discussion on Planetary Boundaries – New Modes of Action in a World Beyond 1.5°C. Internet Archive Europe is proud to support this initiative, which explores how open knowledge, data, and technology can help societies understand and respond to accelerating climate risks.

A New Lens on Climate Action

As the world moves beyond the 1.5°C threshold, governments, businesses, and constituencies are showing declining engagement. Emission reduction targets and transition plans – already deemed insufficient by scientists – are being scaled back.

This raises a fundamental question: should public and private resources focus on adaptation rather than mitigation? Is it time to embrace the unimaginable—an adaptation agenda at scale—and learn to live with climate change?

In this context, new modes of change are emerging: less globally aligned, more bottom-up, technologically empowered, and often citizen-led.

Daniel Erasmus, Founder of ClimateGPT and Head of AI of Internet Archive Europe, will unveil the third iteration of Public Good AI ClimateGPT at Goals House.

ClimateGPT empowers people on the ground by combining vast decentralised datasets ranging from satellites to citizen science input: emissions, earth observation, country, company, sector, and city data to reveal their implications for human systems. The tool maps cascading risks—for example, how a storm in Indonesia can trigger socio-economic and political consequences in rice-consuming countries—helping us understand and act in a world of interconnected vulnerabilities.

Why We Support This

This initiative perfectly aligns with the Internet Archive Europe’s mission of Universal Access to all knowledge. ClimateGPT demonstrates that when we combine planetary-scale datasets with open, decentralized technology, we empower citizens and governments to make better decisions. It is AI built for transparency and adaptation, not just automation.

Join Us in Davos

The launch will feature a C-level roundtable discussion on navigating a world of interconnected vulnerabilities.

  • 🌍 Event: ClimateGPT 3: Planetary Boundaries – New Modes of Action in a World Beyond 1.5°C
  • 🎙️ Host: Daniel Erasmus – Founder, ClimateGPT, Head of AI of the Internet Archive Europe and Full Member, Club of Rome
  • 🧠 Featuring:
    • Johan Rockström – Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
    • Will Marshall – CEO, Planet Labs
    • Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Executive Chair, Earth4All
    • Simon Zadek – Co Founder Morphosis
  • 🗓️ When: Thursday, 22 January | 15:30 – 17:00 CET
  • 📍 Where: Goals House, Mattastrasse 25, Davos, Switzerland

We look forward to seeing how open data can help us navigate the challenges ahead.

Davos Event Spotlight: Launching ClimateGPT 3 and the Future of Public Good AI Read Post »

More Than Storage: On World Digital Preservation Day, AI is Helping Unlock Our Memories

/ / Public AI, Public Domain

On November 6th, we will join our partners and colleagues worldwide to mark World Digital Preservation Day. For us at Internet Archive Europe, this day is a reflection of our core mission. Our commitment is to “Universal Access to All Knowledge,” but what does that mean in practice?

Our collection isn’t just large; it’s on a scale that is hard to comprehend—petabytes of web history, millions of books, and vast audiovisual archives. The first challenge is preservation: saving this digital heritage from being lost to decay, obsolescence, or deletion.

But the second, and equally critical, challenge is access. How do we ensure this material is not just a digital tomb, but a living, useful library for researchers, historians, and the public?

This is where a powerful new partner emerges: Artificial Intelligence.

The “Humans of AI”: A New Perspective on Preservation

We believe AI is a critical tool for unlocking the knowledge buried within our vast digital stacks. That’s why we are so proud to support “Humans of AI,” a new 10-part documentary series from information labs.

This series moves beyond the headlines of disruption. It focuses on the real-world, human-driven projects where AI is being used to make our shared history more accessible, searchable, and understandable.

Activation, Not Just Preservation

This World Digital Preservation Day, we are focused on the challenge of activation. Preserving petabytes of data is one thing; making it discoverable is another. Without new tools, our digital history risks becoming inaccessible, lost in a sea of data.

The “Humans of AI” series tackles this problem head-on.

The series begins with a fantastic example: Transkribus, a platform using AI to do the seemingly impossible—transcribe centuries of complex, unreadable historical handwriting, turning it into searchable data.

But that’s just the first of 10 stories. Over its run, the series explores the breadth of this new field:

  • At Scale: You’ll see how national institutions like the National Library of Norway and pan-European platforms like Europeana are implementing AI to manage and share massive collections.
  • By Community: It highlights the open-source tools from platforms like Hugging Face and the vital community-building work of groups like AI4LAM.
  • New Interactions: The series shows how AI is creating entirely new ways to engage with culture, from chatting with 17th-century literature (Litte_Bot) to exploring complex ideas like Synthetic Memories and ClimateGPT.
  • Our Own Work: We are especially proud that the series will conclude with a look at our own work at Internet Archive Europe, showcasing how we use technology to make our vast web archives accessible.

A Global, Collaborative Effort

This series proves we are not alone in this mission. It highlights a vibrant, global community of librarians, archivists, researchers, and engineers working toward a common goal. This collaborative, non-profit spirit is the only way to tackle challenges this big.

This work is part of a larger, systemic shift. For a comprehensive look at how broad this field has become, we highly recommend exploring the AI Opportunity Inventory, a multi-stakeholder initiative hosted at the University of Texas School of Law. It’s a fantastic database that tracks public-interest AI projects, and it proves that this is a global endeavor.

At Internet Archive Europe, our goal remains clear: universal access. AI is proving to be an indispensable tool in that mission, helping us connect the past to the future. We invite you to watch “Humans of AI” to see what this future of preservation looks like in action.

You can find the first episode and subscription links on the information labs website.

Join Our Event in Amsterdam

But preservation isn’t just about algorithms; it’s about people, connection, and community. The web is not just a data set; it’s a “poetic” space built by individuals.

To celebrate this human side of preservation, we are organising a special event at our Headquarters in Amsterdam about the “Internet Phone Book”, a wonderful annual publication that features essays, musings, and a directory of personal websites, exploring the creative, human side of the web. This session will dive into how the world’s collective memory is being indexed and kept accessible, and how digital preservation connects people and knowledge across time. To join the event, please register here.

  • What: A presentation of the Internet Phone Book
  • With: Kristoffer Tjalve and Elliott Cost
  • When: Thursday, November 6th, 5:45 PM – 7:30 PM
  • Where: Internet Archive Europe HQ, Oudeschans 16, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland

Let’s work together to ensure our shared past remains a living resource for the future.

More Than Storage: On World Digital Preservation Day, AI is Helping Unlock Our Memories Read Post »

Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Reflections on Brewster Kahle’s Intervention at the KB

/ / Digital Rights for Libraries, Events, Public AI

On 17 September, the KB – National Library of the Netherlands hosted an inspiring gathering on the theme of digital sovereignty and the future of web archiving, featuring Marleen Stikker (Waag Futurelab) and Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive / Internet Archive Europe). The event brought together colleagues from OCW, the Rijksmuseum, Europeana, UNESCO, Beeld & Geluid, the Hilversum Time Machine, and many others — a true community committed to safeguarding our shared digital heritage.

Setting the Stage: Why the Web Matters

The session began with Sophie Ham from the KB introducing the national web collection. As she noted, “Our life is on the internet and that is worth preserving.” She reminded the audience that the Dutch web, though relatively small, is of unique historical significance. The Netherlands was already present on the internet in 1985, and remarkably, the third and fourth websites ever created were hosted here.

Sophie emphasized how the Internet Archive has been an invaluable partner in capturing material from before 2007 (when the KB’s own archiving began), and continues to provide preservation capacity that Dutch institutions cannot yet fully pursue due to legal restrictions.

Marleen Stikker on the Digital City and Public AI

Marleen Stikker, in conversation with Martijn Kleppe, revisited De Digitale Stad — the pioneering 1990s digital community. As its former “mayor,” she recalled both the promise and the early challenges of online communication.

Her message was clear: if we want democratic and open digital infrastructures, we must invest in Public AI, built on European values, as articulated in Paul Keller’s recent white paper. Just as De Digitale Stad was once a civic experiment in digital space, today’s moment calls for a renewed commitment to public digital institutions.

Brewster Kahle: Putting Collective Memory at Our Fingertips

Closing the afternoon, Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive Europe shared reflections on nearly three decades of global web preservation.

He began by warmly thanking XS4ALL and KPN for years of server support, and Beeld & Geluid for taking on this role moving forward. He noted that the Internet Archive is fast approaching the milestone of one trillion websites preserved. For Kahle, this work rests on a simple truth: “People are awesome. People want to share, and what they share is worth preserving.”

Kahle too called for Public AI, not dominated by corporate interests but rooted in European values and democratic accountability. He illustrated the potential of AI trained on public knowledge with the example of Leiden University dissertations — documents unlikely to be read by many humans, but which could fuel new discoveries when made accessible to machines.

Perhaps the most tangible expression of this vision was the unveiling of a new interactive machine installed at the KB. Visitors will be able to explore the Dutch web as preserved in the Internet Archive’s collections until 11 October, culminating in The Hague’s Museum Night. More than just a tool, this machine embodies the possibility of placing our collective memory directly at each individual’s fingertips. It demonstrates how digital preservation is not about storing data in the abstract, but about making the richness of the past immediately usable, searchable, and alive for today’s citizens.

This is what “bringing collections to life” truly means — connecting people with the traces of their own digital history and empowering them to use that knowledge to understand the present and imagine the future. And this is at the heart of Internet Archive Europe’s mission: to ensure that Europe’s digital memory is not only safeguarded, but also activated, accessible, and meaningful to all.

Looking Forward

The event at the KB was more than a discussion: it was a reminder that preserving the internet is not just a technical task, but a cultural, democratic, and civic responsibility. It highlighted the importance of collaboration — between libraries, archives, technologists, and policymakers — in ensuring that Europe’s digital memory remains accessible for future generations.

As Brewster Kahle put it, what people share online is worth keeping. And with initiatives like Internet Archive Europe, anchored in Amsterdam, we are taking meaningful steps to safeguard that shared heritage — and to build public digital infrastructures that can meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Marleen Stikker & Brewster Kahle at the KB

Photo credit: “Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Marleen Stikker & Brewster Kahle at the KB” by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 4.0

Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Reflections on Brewster Kahle’s Intervention at the KB Read Post »

AI for Public Good @PublicSpaces: From Hype to Humanity

/ / Events, Public AI

Forget the dystopias and sci-fi. At this panel, the message was clear: AI, when done right, can serve people, not just profits.

“AI is applied statistics on steroids… with a serious marketing spin,” quipped Caroline de Cock, setting the tone for a no-nonsense, myth-busting panel on how AI can serve sustainability, culture, and society. She urged the audience to ditch the Silicon Valley glitz and look at AI like the Dutch polder model: “No one really knows how it works, but the dykes hold, and our feet stay dry.”

🔍 What Happens When Archives Meet Algorithms?

Jeff Ubois from the Internet Archive Europe Board delivered a wake-up call: the previously overlooked corners of digital preservation are now prime real estate for AI training.

“Archives have become relevant, not so much to humans, but to AI.”

He warned about the erasure of inconvenient data—climate, health, economic—being flushed down “Orwell’s memory hole,” while stressing the need for broad access to high-quality information to train AI in the public interest.

“Do you want your doctor’s AI trained on all human medical knowledge, or just what’s fully licensed and easy to access?”

🏗️ Build Public, Not Just Private AI

Ben Cerveny from the Foundation for Public Code flipped the narrative from tech disruption to tech integration. In his words:

“People invent things and call them technology. If they work, they become infrastructure.”

Ben’s vision? A future where cities, libraries, and schools have their own public models: transparent, accountable, and locally tuned.

“A public model should be a public asset—with governance, values, and sustainable funding baked in.”

Dr. Lucie Chateau speaks at AI for Public Good Panel – PublicSpaces Conference 2025: Shaping Our Digital Future – Photo by Lotte Dale

🌍 The Global Majority Needs a Seat at the Table

Dr. Lucie Chateau from Utrecht University’s Inclusive AI Lab stressed the importance of looking beyond Western AI narratives.

“90% of young people live in the Global South. They’re not just data points. They’re creators.”

She introduced groundbreaking work in building regional language models and ethnographic research showing how AI is being joyfully and creatively adopted across India and Africa.

🌱 Climate GPT: AI vs. Our Biggest Crisis

Then came Daniel Erasmus, who cut through AI hysteria with a clear call to arms:

“The peril isn’t AI. It’s climate change.”

He showcased ClimateGPT, a lightweight, renewable-powered model trained to help tackle climate adaptation and resilience. It’s already being used for everything from judging sustainability awards to helping map the impact of extreme weather in real-time.

“We don’t need smarter things. We need better decisions.”

💡 Takeaways

  • Archives matter not just for memory, but for justice and data equity.
  • Europe must build public AI infrastructure, not just regulate private ones.
  • Inclusion means participation: AI from and for the Global South is essential.
  • Climate tech can’t wait, and smaller, focused models are more sustainable and actionable.
  • System prompts = ethics by design: who should decide what your AI thinks?

As one audience member asked, could we one day replace politicians with AI trained on party manifestos?

“No,” came the quick answer. “But we can use AI to make better, more informed decisions.”

That’s the future this panel believes in: grounded, democratic, and just smart enough.

Check out the full recording of the panel here: https://conference.publicspaces.net/session/ai-for-the-public-good

The photo’s of the conference are online now on https://publicspaces.net/2025/06/25/fotos-van-de-publicspaces-conferentie-2025-shaping-our-digital-future/

AI for Public Good @PublicSpaces: From Hype to Humanity Read Post »

Scroll to Top