CivicTechWR: Guest speaker Renjie Butalid
CivicTechWR is a community group that brings together people from different sectors and backgrounds to actively solve civic challenges in our local community using design and technology.
Tonight we welcome guest speaker Renjie Butalid, Co-Founder and Director of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute (MAIEI), an international non-profit working to make AI ethics accessible beyond policymakers and technologists. MAIEI publishes The AI Ethics Brief, a bi-weekly newsletter reaching over 21,000 subscribers across research, policy, and practice, and the annual State of AI Ethics Report.
Since 2020, MAIEI has published the State of AI Ethics Report as a record of where the field stands each year. Renjie will give Civic Tech WR an early look at this year’s themes: power, fracture, and resistance. He will cover what contributors found over 2026, including the fight over a proposed data centre in Hamilton, surveillance arriving under the banner of child protection and care, and communities writing their own terms for how their data gets used.
Join virtually: https://meet.google.com/meet/bjt-gvzv-oed
Agenda
5:45 – 6:00 PM: Doors open - grab some food, say hi to everyone, get settled in.
6:00 – 6:15 PM: Introductions and announcements
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Guest Speaker Renjie Butalid: A First Look at the State of AI Ethics Report, Volume 8 - The Year the Terms Became Visible
6:45 – 7:45 PM: Breakout groups for project work
7:45 – 8:00 PM: Recap and wrap up
8:00 PM - late: Optional post-hacknight hangout
Current projects
We are working on the following projects this season:
Home Hub - Helping tenants find accessible units
LoMo - Mutual aid app for grassroots communities
Waterloo Region Votes - Candidate information website for the upcoming municipal election
One Million Neightbours - Maps green space, schools, libraries, transit, healthcare, etc. by neighbourhood to help identify service gaps.
Project Accommodate - Finding and recording information about an accessible Kitchener Waterloo region
Beside - Helps friends make shared activities part of their lives, even across distance and different schedules
Do you have more questions?
Feel free to reach out by email at civictechwr@gmail.com or join us on Slack via this invite link.