Every AI for Everyone: Where AI, Accessibility, and Open Source Meet
taught by: Derek Jackson
Session Summary
Over the course of the last year, Harvard University has worked with LibreChat, an open-source AI platform with the ambitious goal to make available “Every AI, For Everyone”. This session shares our accessibility journey, invites contributors to join the community and help shape in its future development, and offers a practical AI solution for organizations and individuals with limited resources.
Description
Accessibility is often left as an afterthought in the rush to take advantage of AI. With technology that has the potential to impact so much of our society, it is critical that it be made equitable rather than exacerbate inequality. In this talk I will discuss actionable insights to make AI accessible and community-driven.
Over the past year, Harvard University and LibreChat — an open source AI application, with a growing network of contributors — have worked together to improve LibreChat’s accessibility and usability. I will share lessons learned from this process, where we have had success and where we need to improve, and how community-driven development can create more inclusive AI tools. This session will also include a live installation demo to demonstrate how LibreChat can be easily set up and that accessible AI doesn’t have to be complicated or resource-intensive.
If you're an advocate, developer, or designer this talk will provide insights into how you can contribute, implement, and benefit from open source AI that prioritizes accessibility in every sense of the word.
Practical Skills
- Participants will become familiar with LibreChat, an open source AI application and the work to make it accessible.
- Participants will be have concrete ways they can contribute and work with a community to create an accessible AI tool.
- Participants will be able to install and work with a free and open source AI application that can be deployed for their own use or to a larger audience.