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March 3, 2026/Big Ideas, Reflections

Shaping AI on Rural Terms: Infrastructure, Ownership, and the Question of Who Captures the Gains

Shifting those narratives isn’t just a communications challenge; it’s a question of power. Across regions and sectors, participants described rural places as sites of tech-driven innovation, experimentation, and deep practical knowledge. What is missing is not ingenuity, but the infrastructure, capital, and power of rural leaders to shape how technology shows up in their communities, and how that work is perceived.

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February 18, 2026/Big Ideas, News

Shaping the algorithm: Investing across the tech stack to orchestrate ‘good AI’

Today we’re announcing a partnership with ImpactAlpha to support their Shape the Algorithm beat. The conversation around AI is moving fast. Every day, headlines remind us that the choices we make in technology—what gets built, how it’s governed, who benefits—matter. We’ve long believed that supporting public interest technology and engaging in the future of philanthropy isn’t just about grants. It’s about building the ecosystem that lets good ideas take root, scale, and adapt: capital, governance, knowledge, and strategy.

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February 4, 2026/Big Ideas, Reflections

Rural Consultation Series: Rural Innovation Is Happening. Why Don’t We Hear More About It?

In our work—with grantees, through firsthand observation, and in the stories we intentionally seek—we’ve witnessed the power of technological innovation in rural communities. It takes many forms across the country, often without a data center in sight. Yet these stories rarely break through mainstream narratives, reinforcing a persistent misconception: that meaningful innovation happens elsewhere.

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January 29, 2026/Big Ideas

For Rural Communities, AI Must Mean More Than Data Centers

Data centers are rapidly sprouting across America, with technology companies spending billions to build thousands of facilities nationwide. Rural areas in particular have seen a surge in development as companies seek cheaper land and generous local tax incentives. Many see the trend as providing an entry point into the growing AI sector for communities outside traditional urban centers, with proponents arguing that data centers represent a “new savior” for regions in need of much-needed tax revenue and high-paying jobs. But proponents are missing one key issue: Data center jobs are not AI jobs.

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January 15, 2026/Big Ideas, News

At MIT, a continued commitment to understanding intelligence

With support from the Siegel Family Endowment, the newly renamed MIT Siegel Family Quest for Intelligence investigates how brains produce intelligence and how it can be replicated to solve problems.

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December 30, 2025/Big Ideas, News

A new name, a continued commitment to understanding intelligence

The MIT Quest for Intelligence has been renamed the MIT Siegel Family Quest for Intelligence in recognition of support from David Siegel. SQI’s goal is to understand intelligence — how brains produce it and how it can be replicated in artificial systems to address real-world problems that exceed the capabilities of current AI technologies.

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May 13, 2025/Big Ideas

We Can’t Afford To Wait For Federal AI Regulation, Luckily We Don’t Have To

In every era of rapid technological change, there come moments of deliberation: wait for policy or lead through practice?

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December 19, 2024/Big Ideas, News, Reflections

The Time Has Come For Us to be Unreasonable: Our 2024 Year in Review

As we reflect on the past year, it’s clear that artificial intelligence has dominated discussions across various domains. What surprises us, however, is not the volume of conversation but rather its lack of nuance. Having navigated many cycles of technological development, we recognize the urgent need to move beyond the simplistic “gloom vs. doom” narrative. Instead, we must critically examine what these technologies can do, what they cannot, and—most importantly—what we truly need from them.

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December 3, 2024/Big Ideas, Research

Black-oriented EdTech and public interest technology: a framework for accessible and ethically designed technology for K-12 students

Read new Siegel In-House Research Fellow Symon Campbell’s latest publication in Journal of Integrated Global STEM analyzing three K-12 Black-oriented EdTech platforms developed by Black women—KaiXR, Reconstruction, and TunTimo—leverage public interest technology principles to address educational inequities and counter racial biases in mainstream EdTech.

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November 21, 2024/Big Ideas

A Public Interest Agenda For The Technological Gilded Age

How can we build a resilient public interest technology movement that withstands shifts in administration and power? Siegel President & Executive Director Katy Knight lays out her vision for change in her latest article as a Forbes Nonprofit Council member.

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November 12, 2024/Big Ideas

Event Recap: Doing Tech Together

During this year’s United Nations High-Level Week, we hosted Tech Together – a gathering of 200+ funders, mission-aligned investors, and thought leaders for a full-day event aimed at inspiring new ideas and catalyzing partnerships to shape the next evolution of a global public interest tech network. Watch featured panels and speakers, and read out takeaways.

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