Lab · Artificial intelligence & society
The Digital Palaver brings together young people from around the world to question artificial intelligence using the tools of traditional palaver. Three questions launched the lab: does AI have a memory? How will it transform rural life? What new forms of education does it make possible? These questions opened an inquiry that now extends to digital sovereignty, cultural and linguistic bias, the future of work, the preservation of endangered languages, and the ethics of automated decision-making.
Analyses written by YouthShare contributors, on the questions this lab works on.
While AI feels weightless, every prompt carries a hidden environmental cost in water and electricity that rivals daily household consumption. Mitigating this footprint requires shifting to smaller models and adopting more conscious digital habits to balance innovation with sustainability.
In an era defined by algorithmic control and economic instability, critical thinking is the younger generation's most vital tool. By looking beyond mainstream narratives - from corporate tax evasion to colonial legacies - we can uncover the systemic roots of inequality and build a resilient society.
This article argues that technology designed for the Global South often fails because it excludes local voices and reinforces power imbalances. It calls for funding South-led, context-first solutions, valuing indigenous knowledge, and ensuring data sovereignty to build true climate resilience.
Topics open to contributors, detailed on the research avenues page. Your own idea is welcome too.
See the avenues in detailThe Digital Palaver borrows the form of the traditional palaver: an open circle where anyone can speak, disagree, or propose. We apply it to artificial intelligence, a topic too often reserved for experts far removed from the ground. Here, it’s young people who already use AI every day, in cities and in rural areas alike, who ask the questions and document the answers.
The lab looks at the technology and everything around it: who builds these tools, in what language they think, what work they reshape, and how much decision-making we are willing to hand over to them. These questions matter as much to a student in Dakar as to a researcher in Paris, which is exactly why they belong in an open palaver.
The Digital Palaver works on several fronts at once: adapting existing tools, translating into local languages, critical training, watching for bias, and an honest look at the future of work.
Testing mainstream AI tools under limited connectivity, to identify what actually works on the ground.
Producing explanatory content on AI in the languages spoken by the communities concerned, alongside French and English.
Giving teachers the tools they need to bring AI into their classrooms with discernment.
Testing major AI models against African contexts and questions, to make their blind spots visible.
Documenting, sector by sector, which jobs are changing and which skills are becoming decisive.
Openly documenting the limits of AI, particularly around memory and continuity, so everyone knows exactly what to expect.
Move from field study to real experimentation, tracked over several months.
Set clear guidelines, written by the people who use these tools daily, close to the ground.
Make translation a priority from the start.
Test the questions raised in palaver against the actual state of research, with rigor and a critical eye.
Document, year after year, which sectors are changing, to guide young people currently in training.
Build, with the communities concerned, a record of languages and oral knowledge worth preserving against the flattening pull of generative AI.
Every output of The Digital Palaver fits into one of YouthShare’s five forms of action.
Research, advocacy, mentorship, international dialogue, foresight: see how The Digital Palaver combines several of these forms of action, alongside the four other labs.
See What we doA question about AI to bring to the palaver, a rural school partner to suggest, or simply an interest in joining the lab? Write to us.
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