In a significant development, the Right Livelihood prize, often referred to as the “alternative Nobel,” was awarded on Wednesday to a distinguished AI researcher, a Pakistani human rights lawyer, and two women-led rights organizations. The jury highlighted US artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru for her efforts in confronting concentrated power within AI and advancing digital technologies grounded in justice, lived experience, and human agency.
Gebru is renowned for her research on bias in artificial intelligence. In 2017, she co-founded Black in AI, an initiative aimed at increasing diversity in the field. While leading Google’s Ethical AI team in 2020, she co-authored a groundbreaking paper addressing the risks of bias in large language models (LLMs). After Google requested she retract the paper or remove her name and she declined without assurances, she was dismissed. Subsequently, she established the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR), which challenges the dominance of tech corporations and highlights the detrimental effects AI systems have on marginalized communities facing discrimination and exclusion.
Meanwhile, the Sweden-based Right Livelihood Foundation also honored Pakistani human rights lawyer Jalila Haider. She is recognized for breaking barriers as the first female lawyer from the Hazara community to confront ethnic, state, and patriarchal oppression, driven by her belief that no human being should be considered illegal.
Additionally, the prize was awarded to the Rural Women’s Assembly, a grassroots movement representing over 178,000 small-scale farmers across 11 Southern African countries. This movement was commended for uniting rural women to defend land rights, seed sovereignty, and bodily autonomy against corporate and patriarchal exploitation.
Notably, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Georgia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization founded in 1994 by volunteer lawyers, was recognized as well. The jury described GYLA as the moral compass of Georgian society, honoring its role in protecting democracy and maintaining civic power amid an autocratic crackdown.
The Right Livelihood award was created in 1980 by Swedish-German stamp collector Jakob von Uexkull, who sold part of his collection to establish the prize after the Nobel Foundation declined to introduce new awards in environmental and international development fields.
