How the GMF AI & Democracy Hackathon Fought Deepfakes and Misinformation with Prototypes
AI for good, from both sides of the Atlantic.
Hackathon Case Study
Type: 1-day in-person hackathon
Location: Mexico City
Participants: 40 hackers (journalists, technologists, academics and civil society leaders), from 200+ registrants across 40 countries
Projects: 8 working prototypes
Preparation time: 3 months
Languages: English and Spanish
About German Marshall Fund
HQ: Washington DC, with offices across Europe
Sector: Non-partisan policy organisation / think tank
Key objective: Move from analysing the impact of AI on democracy to building tools that protect it.
When GMF set out to explore how AI might strengthen - or threaten - democratic values, they wanted more than another panel discussion.
Deepfakes, bot networks and targeted disinformation are getting harder to spot, and the people who need to spot them fastest, journalists and newsrooms, rarely sit in the same room as the technologists who could build the tools. GMF's Technology team had been running workshops on content authenticity and wanted to go further. Their framing was simple and ambitious: stop talking about the problem and prototype answers to it. GMF is a think tank. For one day, it would become a do tank.
The key question for the hackathon: How can AI technologies work in favour of, rather than against, democratic values?
GMF had already started planning when they brought in MHD Innovation to structure the event, recruit the right mix of participants and run the day.
“Hiring Maria as our AI & Democracy hackathon facilitator was easily one of the best decisions my team and I made. Maria was instrumental to the success of our event. She brought extensive experience with the hackathon format, helping my team to successfully build out our event structure, judging criteria, pitching process, and recruitment. She designed polished graphics to help us advertise our event, and she was incredibly communicative and responsive to our questions and needs."
- Caitlin Goldenberg, German Marshall Fund
Hackathon Objectives
Bring two worlds together. Technologists, journalists & civil society leaders on the same teams.
Build, not brief. Leave the day with real prototypes, not slides of recommendations.
Ground it in context. Challenges around the realities of Latin America's information ecosystem.
Build GMF's hackathon muscle. Give the team a repeatable structure they could run again.
Process
Define. GMF's team had already started planning when we came in. We tightened the agenda and run-down so participants would create maximum impact in minimum time, sharpened six AI & Democracy challenges into concrete briefs, and set the judging criteria and pitch format.
Design. Light branding helped us pitch the event to judges and recruit participants. Judges, mentors, speakers and participants all had digital assets to share their excitement in the lead-up, and it paid off: the pre-hack posts alone generated 749 reactions, 48 comments and 76 reposts, with hackathon applications from 40 countries.
Deliver. The pre-hack convening set the high-energy vibe, got the teams sharing insights on Discord and communicating until the hackathon. On the day Maria MC'd and facilitated along with expert mentors, empowering eight teams to develop high-quality projects and take the stage for the final demos.
Mentor check-in: a team talks through its solution with mentors from GMF’s Technology Team and IPADE
Tangible Outcomes
A room that doesn't usually exist
Registrations came from civil society (28%), technology (26%), academia (21%), media (11%) and activism, from 40 countries, with 30% based in Mexico and 26% in the US. The 40 selected hackers were placed in 8 mixed teams so every project had both the technical skills to build and the domain knowledge to build the right thing.
8 working prototypes in one day
The solutions clustered around three needs: tools for journalists and fact-checkers (bot-amplified content detection, breaking-news verification, one-click context for political posts), media literacy for young and newly digitalised audiences (a browser extension decoding viral memes, an educational game, a web app for communities newly exposed to AI-generated disinformation), and support for victims of digital gender-based violence (a verified information platform with a chatbot, and a real-time monitoring and response service).
Proof of the model
This was GMF's first hackathon, so the format itself was a test. The goal was to show what happens when technologists and public policy people build together for a day, and to give GMF's own team a first-hand model for running one.
Momentum beyond the room
Between the pre-hack build-up and the post-event posts, judges, organisers and participants generated over 1,350 reactions and 100 reposts on LinkedIn, for a 40-person event with no prize pool. Participants left wanting more.
1st prize winners Team Olimpia with judge María Alejandra Molina, TV Azteca
“The support and sense of empowerment was a treasure I will always remember.”
”I had an amazing time and fell in love with the experience.”
“Maria facilitated a fast-paced, full-day event with energy, warmth, and enthusiasm. She helped to troubleshoot changes and adjustments on the fly, and our participants pointed to her by name when thanking us for hosting the event. I cannot recommend Maria enough as a hackathon facilitator and team member.”
Find out more about the AI & Democracy hackathon on the GMF website.
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