Tactical Tech

In The Loop, June 2026

9 minutes read | First published: June 28, 2026
a woman pointing at a poster

🔍🌐✨ How to choose digital tools (yes, you have a choice) in the age of AI

Every platform and tool we use embeds specific ideologies, business models, and value systems. These tools influence much more than our workflows; they may also have serious consequences for societies and the planet.
In practice, digital tools are so embedded in the way we work that we almost forget they are a choice. We assume them to be unchangeable truths. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Because of that, Marek Tuszynski, Tactical Tech's co-founder, created a guide with tips and methods to choose the right digital tools for you while empowering you to challenge tech paradigms.
Before choosing a tool, ask yourself these questions to help you recognize their explicit and hidden purposes, the risks they pose, and the costs of using them:
  • 💰 Economic: Who pays? Who profits? Who is left behind?
  • 👷 Labour: Who builds and maintains them? Under what conditions?
  • 🎭 Cultural/Social: What norms and values do they promote or erase?
  • 🏛️ Political: What agendas do they support or suppress?
  • 🌱 Ecological: What resources, water, air, energy, land, minerals, do they consume or damage?
🔗 Discover this practical guide here

🤖 AI AND US

🇷🇴 Hello AI! Pop up exhibition is now available in Romanian

Our portable, modular exhibition is designed to answer everything you wanted to know about AI but were too afraid to ask, from algorithms and hidden labour to environmental impact and bias. This traveling exhibition, which has been touring around the world, is now available in Romanian thanks to our partners at Asociația Techsoup!
More information about the Hello AI! Exhibition here.
Interested in hosting this exhibition in your next event or conference? Contact us at partnership@tacticaltech.org.
Hello AI! exhibition

👾 YOUTH AND TECH

🔺 Working on how social media harms teens? Book now: The Toxic Triangle Experience

From social media bans to age verification, debates rage over regulations that are intended to protect young people from online harms. But are we asking the right questions? Or are we overlooking the root causes? And are these solutions truly effective, or just stopgaps?
When young people's personal information and social lives meet attention-driven technologies, powered by a huge commercial market, a toxic triangle forms. This interactive experience, designed as a closed-door session for decision makers, foundations, journalists and NGOs, forms a critical base for thinking about possible solutions and strategies for response through facilitated debate.
🔗 More information and how to request the experience here.
The Toxic Triangle Experience

🚀 Supercharged Human? Resources for teens and educators to learn how to navigate AI

AI is reshaping how young people learn, think, and connect. But are we equipping them with the tools to navigate it critically? Tactical Tech, Save the Children, and Savoir Devenir are joining forces to create a multilingual playlist of educational resources, a critical AI literacy field guide for educators, and an inter-generational toolkit for the critical use of AI. If you work with young people, register to be the first to hear about new resources.
🔗 Read more and join the movement here.

🔍 TECH, MEDIA & INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

✈️ Apply for travel grants for the Breakwater Journalism Festival. Deadline: 12 July 2026

Are you a Europe-based journalist or media professional? Tactical Tech is offering travel and subsistence support of up to €1,000 per person to attend the Breakwater International Journalism Festival in Gdańsk, Poland, 24 to 27 September 2026. The festival brings together reporters, editors, and media innovators for four days of workshops, debates, and networking on media viability, audience development, and journalism in the age of AI.
🔗 More information and how to apply here.

🔬 Apply to join the 2026 edition of the Exposing the Invisible Investigation Residency in Berlin. Deadline: 5 July 2026

An immersive three-day gathering for experienced investigators in Berlin, 30 September to 2 October 2026. This year's residency focuses on three major topics: the powers behind AI, its impacts and limitations; tech's impact on young people and the business model driving it; and the issues and powers affecting the ocean. Travel and accommodation support is available for EU-based participants. Up to 30 places available.
🔗 More information and how to apply here.
Exposing the Invisible Investigation Residency call

🏅 Grants for Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) Certification Audits. Deadline: 11 August 2026

The Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI) is offering grants to support media organisations pursuing Journalism Trust Initiative certification. Up to six grants, ranging from €1,500 to €5,000, will be awarded to support audit costs for eligible media organisations that have completed their JTI self-assessment and transparency report.
🔗 Apply by 11 August 2026 here.

💰 Grants for cross-border collaborative investigations on the impact of AI. Deadline: 22 July 2026

Free Press Unlimited is inviting applications for four grants of €5,000 each to support cross-border collaborative investigations on the impact of AI. The grants are open to teams of journalists from at least two eligible European countries and support investigations into topics such as AI governance, accountability of AI companies, environmental impacts, human rights, political power structures behind AI, and the societal implications of emerging technologies.
🔗 Apply by 22 July 2026 here.

📣 OPEN CALLS

🌟 Join our Board! Three new Board Member positions. Deadline: 2 July 2026

Tactical Tech is entering a new strategic period, and we're looking for amazing leaders and human beings to help us shape our organisational future. Do you want to play a key role in how we help people and decision-makers navigate the impacts of technology? Apply to be our new Treasurer, Board Member for Partnerships and Organisational Sustainability, or Board Member for Technology, Politics and Society. These are voluntary positions, requiring a minimum of 10 years of senior leadership experience.
🔗 Full details here.

⭐ We are hiring an Operations Director. Deadline: 6 July 2026

A senior role at the heart of Tactical Tech, working closely with our Co-Executive Directors across finance, HR, legal, compliance, and governance. Based in Berlin, hybrid working from our office at Publix. Fixed-term contract of up to three years.
🔗 Apply here.

⭐ OUR PARTNERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Asociația Techsoup: Reclaiming agency in the age of AI

Asociația Techsoup, a long-time advocate for strengthening digital agency in Romania, collaborated with Tactical Tech to host and translate the Hello AI! Exhibition, Tactical Tech's pop-up intervention addressing tough questions about AI.
At the core of Asociația Techsoup's work is a strong commitment to user agency. They emphasise that a different digital future depends on people having the power to shape and use technology in ways that support human flourishing. Technology, in this view, should serve as a tool for solving problems, strengthening communities, and enabling growth. Through their programmes, Asociația Techsoup works on capacity building for civil society, digital citizenship for young people, and programming and AI literacy for students.
🔗 Read more about Asociația Techsoup's work here.
Asociația Techsoup event

📣 TACTICAL TECH IN ACTION

Tactical Tech's team led conversations, hosted workshops, and participated in events worldwide to advance knowledge and build the capacities of communities addressing technology-related challenges.
  • Ana Maria Salinas, senior manager for partnerships and creative projects, spoke on a panel about the ethics of AI in storytelling at Doxumentale Film Festival on 25 May. Ana joined filmmakers, journalists, artists, and media professionals for a conversation about the opportunities and challenges AI is bringing to documentary storytelling. Read more here.
    Doxumentale Film Festival panel
  • Snowstorm Productions and Publix Berlin, in collaboration with Tactical Tech, hosted the first German screening of the film Molly vs. The Machines by Marc Silver, the story of a young woman who took her own life after being exposed to harmful online content, and her father's fight to expose the business models driving these harms. Tactical Tech co-founder Stephanie Hankey also presented The Toxic Triangle Experience, exploring solutions to the harms created by social media.
    Molly vs. The Machines screening
  • 40 journalists attended a full day of workshops centered around open-source intelligence and satellite investigations, hosted by Tactical Tech project the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative on 27 May. Read more here.
    CIJI workshop placeholder
  • On 9 June, we joined GlogauAIR Project Space in Berlin for a conversation on technology, society, and loneliness. Artist JUPITERFAB shared visual storytelling on tech and youth loneliness, co-founder Marek Tuszynski presented insights from The Toxic Triangle, and Dr. Wilson Nash spoke on technology's effects on elderly people. Thanks to everyone who joined us.
  • In 2024, Tactical Tech moved into Publix Berlin, a hub bringing together over 30 organisations strengthening journalism and civil society in Germany. Publix has now released its first impact report, featuring an interview with our co-founder Stephanie Hankey on how the move has supported our mission. Read it here.
    Publix impact report placeholder

📰 WHAT ARE WE READING?

  • [🎥LECTURES] MIT Center for Advancing Humans with AI critical lecture series, available for free on YouTube. Go to AHA MIT Media Lab
  • [📰ARTICLE] Mark Sweney for The Guardian on how spending on advertising will likely go down following the ban on children on social media. Go to The Guardian
  • [🔍RESEARCH] Journal article on how AI and Big Tech are exacerbating inequality in the agricultural sector. Go to Wiley Online Library
  • [🎥VIDEO] Karen Hao's opening keynote for re:publica 2026 on how Silicon Valley is reshaping the world. Go to YouTube
  • [🔍RESEARCH] Journal article reflecting on the transformative value and participatory potential of open source AI. Go to ACM Digital Library
  • [🎤PODCAST] A conversation about the book The Ghost Lab by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, discussing the limits of science journalism. Go to New Books Network
  • [🎥VIDEO] Micro-film by Smartphone Free Childhood. Go to YouTube
  • [📰ARTICLE] Mattias Bastian for The Decoder on Germany's landmark ruling that Google is responsible for whether its AI search results are factually accurate. Go to The Decoder