Building a Borough Brain

Negotiating AI as a Community

Negotiating AI as a Community approaches AI and knowledge about AI as a ‘means’ to be used skillfully for our collective wellbeing not as an ‘end it itself’ to be chased after out of fear of missing out. It is the medium not the mission. The mission is increasing the competence and coherence of community and community organisations. It is community building. While this series of workshops has been given the subtitle ‘Building a Borough Brain’, this ‘Brain’ is us and what we are aiming at is an enhanced capacity to work together that I call Augmented Community Intelligence (ACI).

NAIC is presented as a series of bi-weekly workshop sessions held on Tuesday evenings 6pm to 8pm at the Royal Docks Centre for sustainability. The bi-weekly sessions are arranged into thematic seasons. On alternate Tuesdays between the NAIC workshops we will be running DREAMS workshops – DREAMS means Dialogue Reflection Ethics Awareness Meditation and Storytelling and these will be focussed on personal empowerment.

When I say that ‘we’ will be running these workshops I do not simply mean ‘me’ or any other formal planner or facilitator. I mean ‘we’ as in ‘you and me’. NAIC and DREAMS are intended participatory workshops in the fullest sense. They are exploratory, explanatory, experimental and experiential  and require engagement and sharing. The programme is not set in stone but is responsive with the outline given below as a rough guide to territory not yet explored. Throughout we will be thinking about and with the use of AI but outside the usual boxes that define learning about AI. 

The workshops are intended for community organisers, activists, students, practitioners, and residents who want to think and act together more effectively in a world shaped by AI.

We will be using newhammosaic.org as the website of our learning community and participating in its development is part of the learning.

Gavin Sealey
Community Dialogist

The NAIC Seasons

Season 1 – AI and the Community Actionist (Nov 2025- Jan 2026)

“…to establish a shared understanding of how community actionists can practically use AI tools…”

The aim of this season is to establish an understanding of the relationship between ‘community actionists’ and AI tools. How these tools can be effective in supporting community actionists and organisations in managing information and supporting communication – reach and engagement.

Season 2 – Reconnaissance, Recognition and Response. (Jan – March 2026)

“…to collectively map where we are, where we’ve been, and what challenges we face…”

The aim of  this season is to gain a collective understanding of where we are as a community and where we have been. To learn lessons from both the past and the present (Reconnaissance). To understand what the challenges – economic, social and environmental – are and how we can work together to respond to them  (Recognition and Response)

Season 3 – Resistance, Resilience and Renaissance (March – May 2026)

“…to prototype and strengthen coherent community structures…”

To build coherent structures of community – a symphony on top of existing synergies that returns power to community (Resistance and Resilience). (Renaissance)

Season 4 – Mindfulness and Meaning in the Machine (May to July 2026)

“…to reflect on meaning, agency and wellbeing in relation to AI and power…”

The relationship between the individual, the community and the structures of power..Identifying the big issues and coping with them on personal and collective levels.

Season 5 – A Brain – A Heart – The Nerve – A Home (Ongoing)

(A metaphor for thinking, care, commitment and belonging.)

Community building and maintenance. By the end of this ‘story arc’ we will have established a creative, coherent community capable of coordinated action — but only if, and to the extent that, we are prepared to work with each other for it.