AI assistants are becoming more confident, direct, and less emotionally supportive in their default communication. These changes may seem subtle, but they matter because most people use AI systems as they are presented to them. At the scale these technologies are now used, even small shared shifts in tone can shape how people understand trust, authority, uncertainty, and what they expect “good” communication with AI, or even with other humans, to sound like.
We are happy to share our workshop toolkit for reflecting and discussing systemic and ethical challenges of developing digital public services. In the workshop we make use of speculative cinema to provoke reflections.
This study circle is meant for public sector practitioners to learn about things like care, participation, and belonging in a group setting. By joining, the participants will get 1) tools for your structured and consistent reflection (such as journaling), and 2) a peer-support group. At the same time, they will be participating in a research study, looking into how practitioners exercise care, when designing and implementing public services.
Reliability and trustworthiness are essential in research, but “truth” is often shaped by context, power dynamics, and participant vulnerability. Studying migrants’ trust in digital public services highlighted how uncertainty and self-censorship can affect responses. Rather than claiming absolute truth, researchers should acknowledge limitations, practice reflexivity, and be transparent about how knowledge is produced.
Finland is preparing legislative changes to expand the use of AI and automation in public digital services. We responded with recommendations on human oversight, stakeholder consultation, digital sovereignty, and maintaining public sector expertise. This post summarizes our key proposals and includes our full comment in Finnish.
Join us for a full-day workshop at the NordiCHI 2026 conference in Vaasa, Finland. We will explore the role of intermediaries — actors that support residents in navigating and accessing digital public services.
What happens when trust and care are the goals of public services? WP2 is doing research to try thinking of the possibilities and practical ways Espoo services already do this.
The European Union (EU) has introduced a regulation that mandates all EU Member States to provide a digital identity wallet, called EUDI, to all citizens. How could it facilitate immigration procedures, and what challenges does it have?
For the past five years, the EU has adopted new rules to make digital services more accessible, trustworthy, and transparent. In recently published book on EU data regulations, it is shown how the five new acts are designed to increase the availability of data in the EU, while also safeguarding fundamental rights, like the right to privacy.
PD has been framed as a way to give voice to marginalised communities, however, it’s been co-opted or misused. We created an interactive story as a way to reflect on these tensions.
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