Digital Rights Summer School 2026: Demystifying AI

This year’s Digital Rights Summer School was hosted in Petrovac, Montenegro from 21 to 25 September, bringing together more than 20 journalists, activists, and researchers for an intensive week of learning and dialogue. Held in the Red Commune Museum, the program tackled urgent questions about artificial intelligence and its far-reaching implications for society.

The participants learned how machine learning and generative AI systems function, explored different types of automated technologies, and examined their common failure modes. A key focus was identifying points of human choice and responsibility within systems often presented as autonomous. The sessions also examined resources and dependencies underpinning AI development, analyzing how business models and power concentration shape which technologies are deployed in different societies. Critical analysis of the dominant narratives around AI and technology and tracing how they serve particular interests was also covered.

The School also explored AI-enabled surveillance technologies and their interconnections, helping participants recognize deployment patterns and function creep within their own countries. Discussions extended beyond privacy to examine how surveillance impacts broader rights.

The current Western Balkans landscape of surveillance, online harassment, and information ecosystems across the region, examining how weak enforcement, media capture, and political pressure on civil society enable digital rights violations was one of the aspects of the Summer School which helped participants better understand their local challenges.

One of the key topics was Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). The participants learned how to map foreign and domestic actors, objectives, vulnerabilities, channels, and tactics involved in coordinated influence operations, which increasingly leverage AI-generated content alongside traditional media operations and coordinated networks.

In addition, the program examined how emerging technologies like generative AI can intensify gender-based violence, and explored how platform design policies and response mechanisms shape experiences of digital harm.

On the policy level, the Summer School covered the EU AI Act and the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI, equipping participants with knowledge of key prohibitions, obligations, and commitments shaping contemporary AI governance.

The Digital Rights Summer School 2026 was made possible with support from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.