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Webinar recap: Introducing our AI Policy

Updated: Jul 27

This Literacy Works webinar took place on July 16, 2026, as part of our Engaging Critically with AI series. Check out the recording, notes, and resources below.



This webinar covers:

  1. Why it’s important to have an AI policy

  2. Elements to include in your AI policy

  3. Resources and guiding questions to develop your own AI policy




Key ideas

Creating a Gen AI policy will help you:

  • Provide clarity for staff and partners

  • Reduce risk

  • Protect the privacy of our organization, our staff, and the communities we serve 

  • Stay aligned with your values


Elements of white supremacy culture show up in how Gen AI has been developed and promoted:

Sense of urgency: Messages of “don’t question it”, “just use it” or “you’ll be left behind”.

Individualism over collective: Companies are advancing at record speed to stay competitive despite the environmental, social, and economic impacts.


Paternalism: when an AI decides it knows better than the user and questions or overrides the user's intentions, even though there's no clear legal, ethical, or safety reason to do so.


Disregard for health and the environment: Data centers produce a lot of noise, use significant amounts waters, strain power systems leading to increased consumer costs, and pollute the environment. 


Quantity over quality: Gen AI systems are trained to keep users engaged and coming back, not to prioritize accuracy or quality. 


Our process

  1. We had several honest conversations about how we were already using Gen AI and how it might fit into our work.

  2. We did a lot of research on existing AI policies, as well as the current landscape of Generative AI. 

  3. We brainstormed the first version of our policy by taking what we liked from other policies and filling in gaps for our specific context. 

  4. As a team, we created consensus by writing and revising the policy over several months until we had a version we could all live with. 


Questions to explore in making your own policy

Decision making

  • Who should be included in these conversations? 

  • How will you make your final decision? 

  • How will you communicate the final decision with everyone? 


Setting up the conversation

  • What do we know about Gen AI?

  • How do we feel about GenAI?

  • What role do we see GenAI playing at our organization in general and within our programs?

  • What unique program needs might make Gen AI useful for some and not others? 

  • What tools are we interested in using? What do we know about those tools?


Considering privacy and risk management 

  • What types of data are my staff allowed (or not allowed) to share through GenAI programs? Do they know this and why do we have this policy?

  • Who has access to data my team enters? Is info being used to train LLMs?

  • If information entered by a staff person became searchable suddenly, would we have an issue? Have we entered data that could be used for harm if gotten into the wrong hands?

  • Is sensitive health information being entered into systems that aren’t HIPAA compliant?

  • Who monitors privacy terms as they change or company ownership changes?




Additional Resources


Examples of Gen AI guidance and policies


General GenAI Discussions


Environmental Issues


Ethical Issues Around GenAI


Legal Issues 


Work




Interested in learning more about professional development at Literacy Works? Check out other past webinars, find upcoming events on our training page, or contact Sarah Glazer, Sr. Program Manager, at sarah@litworks.org to learn more about our offerings.

© 2026 Literacy Works


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