How does 38 Degrees use AI in our communications?

38 Degrees has always prided itself on being at the forefront of new technologies and using them to help people up and down the country to create impact and make the UK a better country. We were one of the first organisations to pioneer digital petitions, develop ‘email your MP’ tools, and many more tactics, which have helped our supporters to break down barriers to democracy and win countless campaigns.

The emergence of AI has shifted the world of technology again. As a people-powered movement hungry for change, AI has offered us huge opportunities to increase our collective impact. We operate with a small staff team and we have some huge powerful adversaries, so technology that helps us increase our productivity and the pace at which we work is something we want to embrace. 

Does that mean that 38 Degrees is going to start churning out lots of low quality AI nonsense? Absolutely NOT. 

Does that mean that the team at 38 Degrees might use AI to help us correct spellings, simplify our language and make our content more concise? Absolutely YES.

Each piece of content we send out, including every email to supporters goes through  a rigorous process, involving a lot of people. Generally an email would start with a handful of people on a call discussing a pitch, debating its merits, how to frame the argument and which points to make. Someone then goes off to write the email, someone else edits the email, someone else signs off the email and finally someone else checks it for spelling and other errors. 

During that whole process we might use some AI products to help speed things up such as asking an AI to simplify a paragraph that’s too long, or maybe to suggest some ideas for subject lines or suggest ways of describing a complicated political news story. But rest assured at every stage there’s a staff member writing, checking the work, reading the language, editing the copy, making corrections and ensuring it’s fit to be sent out the door as a 38 Degrees people powered email. Humans are in the loop at every stage of the process. And that won’t change.

As the world of AI develops we’ll be keeping our eyes to see how else we can embrace the technology to help us all win more of the campaigns we all care about, whilst always remembering that above anything else we’re a people powered movement.

Robin Priestley
Director of Supporter Engagement & Insight