dembrane Newsletter: Celebrating our first half of 2024
Dear dembrane Community,
We're excited to share our progress on shaping the future of participation in the first half of 2024. It's been a period of significant growth, innovation, and impact for dembrane. Here's a snapshot of our journey so far:
🚀 Explosive Growth
dembrane is pioneering AI-enhanced participatory democracy tools that make large-scale, meaningful civic engagement possible and accessible. We've experienced 5x growth in our customer base compared to last year, serving 20 new clients across various sectors including government, housing, healthcare, and education. This expansion has allowed us to give voice to people participating in one of the 450+ conversations using our participatory processes.
👥 Team Expansion
We've grown from 2 to 5 team members, enabling us to better serve our clients and push our mission forward. We’ve had a blast together, and we are looking forward to expanding the team more in the second half of this year. Know anyone or want to join yourself? Check out our vacancies!
🏆 Recognition and Funding
Secured a €150k European Horizon grant as part of the €3M AI4Deliberation project
Semi-finalist in the PHIA innovation awards (top 20 most promising startups in the Netherlands)
Winner of the Gerard & Anton award (top 10 most promising startups in Brabant)
Our co-founder Evelien was identified as one of the 50 most talented youngsters of the Netherlands by the FD (Dutch equivalent of the Financial Times)
Invited as experts to OECD and European Commission workshops on the future of tech for participation
🎤 Spreading the Word
Our team has been actively sharing dembrane's vision at high-profile events:
Keynote on Collective Superintelligence at Microsoft AI event, Amsterdam, shining light on the concept of collective superintellence
Discussion on democracy and AI at Dutch Innovation Days, Enschede, exploring the future of democracy
Talk on AI and democracy symbiosis at BG Legal's 50th anniversary, Eindhoven, sparking an afternoon of inspirational discussion
Presentation on AI in participation processes at DVDP conference, Den Bosch, discussing the current opportunities for AI in sustainable urban development
Spoke on Ethical AI for Inclusive Democracy in the podcast ‘PlayPod’ by Builders, going deeper into the story and vision of dembrane
“I feel like we really want to have these conversations with people because they’re so rich, and there are these hidden nuggets that you might not find in your survey.” Evelien - on the PlayPod podcast
🛠️ Product Development
We've made significant strides in developing a standalone, scalable product, that you can all start using in September.
Our platform makes it easier than ever to record lots of conversations between your stakeholders while respecting their privacy.
With real time sentiment analysis and topic clustering, as well as advanced AI techniques dembrane can help you turn all that data into content for your community, by your community.
We're excited to begin user testing in August. Interested in participating? Contact [email protected].
Interested to stay up to date with product releases? Join our waiting list.
🌱 Responsible Innovation
As we grow, we remain committed to responsible innovation in AI-enhanced participation. Our approach focuses on harnessing AI's benefits while actively mitigating risks:
Data Privacy: We process audio in-house and provide powerful anonymisation tools, helping you prioritise ideas over identities.
AI Influence: Our system is designed to record and summarise discussions, with clear labeling of AI-generated content.
Spotlight: BrainWaves Project
Our recent project in Eindhoven demonstrated how technology can enhance civic engagement while preserving human agency. In one evening, we facilitated AI-assisted discussions among 50+ participants, collecting 20 hours of conversation. The result? 96% of participants reported a positive experience!
"This form of communication, with AI interventions providing suggestions, ideas, and potential solutions, could become very important in 'connecting' people and also in making discussions more accessible to everyone." - BrainWaves participant
To learn more about our approach to ethical AI and participation innovation, visit our ethical AI page.
🔬 Ongoing Research
While we're gearing up for our upcoming product release, our team remains committed to pushing the boundaries of AI in democratic processes. Here's a glimpse into our ongoing and future research:
EU AI4Deliberation Grant: Exploring AI's role in facilitating difficult conversations without bias.
Google Impact Grant (pending): Developing tools to make complex policy documents more accessible, leveling the information playing field for civil society.
Benchmarking Initiative: Defining metrics to measure and improve the quality of AI-assisted democratic processes.
Democratic AI Fine-tuning: Investigating how to align AI with community values through iterative learning from public discussions.
Excited about these research directions? Whether you're interested in joining our team, partnering on a project, or contributing in other ways, we'd love to hear from you. Contact [email protected] to get involved.
🔮 Looking Ahead
As we move into the second half of 2024, we're focused on refining our product, expanding our reach, and continuing to innovate in the space of AI-enhanced democracy. We're also super excited to further develop our responsible AI practices, ensuring our growth aligns with our commitment to ethical innovation in participatory processes. Stay tuned for more updates!
Thank you for your continued support and interest in dembrane.
Together, we're shaping the future of participation.
Best regards, The dembrane Team
Want to learn more or get involved? Visit our website at www.dembrane.com or follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates.