Writing Contributor, The Digital Palaver

You write two analyses on what artificial intelligence changes in young people’s lives: their languages, their studies, their first jobs and their rights. Two analyses in one 3-month cycle, five places, fully remote.

Read the lab’s research avenues: research avenues

HOW TO APPLY

Apply here on Idealist. In a few lines, present the topic you propose, your angle and what makes it original. Start from one of the lab’s research avenues listed below, or propose another topic linked to the lab.

THE ASSIGNMENT AT A GLANCE

• Lab: The Digital Palaver (AI & society)
• What you write: two analyses, in English or French, of 430 to 1,600 words each (op-ed, analysis brief or field piece)
• Places: 5 contributors for this lab
• Cycle: 3 months, from 1 December 2026 to 28 February 2027
• Renewal: once, for a second cycle from 1 March to 31 May 2027
• Time: 3 to 5 hours a week
• Location: fully remote, from any country
• Fully voluntary assignment

ABOUT THE LAB

The Digital Palaver invites 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.

Lab page: The Digital Palaver

THE TOPICS: THE LAB’S RESEARCH AVENUES

• Growing up with an artificial friend: Chatbot companions, emotional support apps, assistants available at any hour: what becomes of friendship, loneliness and learning about relationships when a machine always answers.
• The languages machines leave out: Quechua, Wolof, Tagalog, Uyghur: languages spoken by millions remain scarce in training data. What a machine learns to understand shapes what its users can say.
• The right to be forgotten versus language models: A photo, a message, a teenage mistake: a model trained on the web keeps a trace. The legal question meets a technical one that is still open.
• The hidden workforce of artificial intelligence: Data labelling, content moderation, response rating: often poorly paid work, spread across Nairobi, Manila, Caracas and Bogotá, keeps conversational assistants running.
• What is homework worth in the age of writing assistants?: When a tool writes an essay in seconds, schools must restate what they assess: thinking, reasoning, the ability to defend an idea.
• First job, first algorithm: Automated CV screening, video interviews scored by software, online tests: many young people meet the job market through a machine first.
• The farmer and the algorithm: Automated credit, weather forecasts, crop prices on a phone, from India to Kenya and Brazil: AI can make farmers more autonomous, or more dependent on platforms.
• Where does our data sleep?: Submarine cables, data centres, cloud computing: the physical geography of the internet decides under which laws our messages, photos and medical records live.
• Deepfakes and consent: Faked intimate images, cloned voices, fabricated videos: cases in Spain and South Korea have targeted school pupils. Law, schools and platforms move at different speeds.
• Bias has an accent: Voice and face recognition, machine translation, credit scoring: measuring how systems handle faces, accents and names, and what that means for access to services.
• Making the dead speak: Avatars of the deceased, “deadbots” fed on messages and videos: the technology promises to prolong a voice. It touches grief, family memory and funeral traditions.
• Frugal AI: Lightweight models that run offline, on a phone: designing under energy and connectivity constraints becomes an advantage for innovators in poorly served regions.

You can also propose another topic linked to the lab. Anchor it in a country, a city, a sector or a period: a good topic fits in one precise sentence.

PROFILES WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Computer science, data science or engineering: you can explain how a model works in plain words, and test what it gets wrong
• Law: data protection, the right to be forgotten, deepfakes, liability for automated decisions (GDPR and other regional laws)
• Social sciences, education, linguistics or anthropology: what AI changes in classrooms, languages, relationships and grief
• Economics or labour studies: the hidden workforce of AI, first jobs screened by algorithms, platforms in farming
• Everyday users of AI tools, in cities or rural areas, and speakers of languages that machines leave out, who document what they see first-hand

Every background counts: a course, a student project, an internship, volunteering or a personal project. First-hand experience of the topic you write about is a strength.

WHAT YOU DO DURING THE CYCLE

• Confirm your two topics with the lab at the start of the cycle, within the needs set by the Lab Lead
• Research and write each analysis yourself, with a verifiable source for every figure, quotation and fact
• Submit each analysis through our submission space: the text, its sources, a two- or three-sentence biography, a portrait photo and a declaration of any AI tool used
• Revise your text with the editorial board’s written feedback until its final decision

OUR EDITORIAL CHARTER

• Your own words: a text produced or rewritten by generative AI is rejected, and any use of an AI tool is declared, proofreading included
• Verifiable sources: author, title, date and link for each one
• Three checks before the editorial board: AI detection, plagiarism check and source check
• Unpublished work, reserved for YouthShare until it is published

Read the charter: editorial charter

WHAT THIS ASSIGNMENT GIVES YOU

• Two analyses published under your name, in English and French
• Written feedback from the editorial board at every round
• Your card on our

Contributors page

• Research writing experience to the standard of a demanding editorial board

HOW CYCLES WORK

Each lab welcomes 5 contributors per 3-month cycle. The assignment can be renewed once, for a second cycle. After each cycle, the lab opens a new cohort according to the needs set by its Lab Lead.

HOW SELECTION WORKS

We select applications according to our values (equity, solidarity, integrity, participation, resilience and impact), your availability and the places open in the cycle.

If you need an adjustment to apply or to take part, write to hr@youthshareinitiatives.org

AFTER SELECTION: SUBMIT ON OUR WEBSITE

Each analysis is submitted with a personal code received by email: submission space

ABOUT YOUTHSHARE INITIATIVES

YouthShare Initiatives is an international think-action tank and a French non-profit (Act of 1 July 1901). It brings young people from around the world together in five labs to think together, then act: research, debate, mentoring and foresight. Discover us: youthshareinitiatives.org

RÉSUMÉ EN FRANÇAIS

Rédiger deux analyses sur l’intelligence artificielle et la société (The Digital Palaver) : Vous rédigez deux analyses sur ce que l’intelligence artificielle change dans la vie des jeunes : leurs langues, leurs études, leurs premiers emplois et leurs droits.

Mission bénévole à distance, 5 places, cycle de 3 mois du 1er décembre 2026 au 28 février 2027, renouvelable une fois ; 3 à 5 h par semaine. Candidatez ici sur Idealist : présentez votre sujet, votre angle et ce qui le rend original.

Vos analyses se déposent ensuite sur notre site : soumettre une analyse

Pistes de recherche du laboratoire : lire les pistes