Solidarity AI 2026 in Bangkok Convenes Advocates for Community-Led Tech

The Platform Cooperativism Consortium, in partnership with PCC Thailand and Chulalongkorn University, is convening the Solidarity AI conference from 12 to 15 November 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand. Hosted at Chulalongkorn University, the four-day event brings together researchers, cooperative executives, technology developers, trade unionists, and digital rights defenders from across the Global South. The gathering provides a dedicated forum to evaluate community-led alternatives to commercial artificial intelligence models.

Community-driven technology

According to Co-operative News, more than 160 delegates representing over 170 organisations from 40 countries are scheduled to attend the Bangkok gathering. The summit builds on discussions initiated at the 2025 cooperative AI convention in Istanbul, shifting attention directly to Asia and the wider developing world. Participants will explore practical mechanisms for shared ownership, algorithmic accountability, and decentralised infrastructure. Programme sessions feature workshops on financing community-owned AI infrastructure, design clinics, and panel debates examining how automated systems affect platform labour, gig workers, and agricultural supply chains. Discussions will also incorporate perspectives from Buddhist ethics, Gandhian thought, and Thailand's sufficiency economy concept to reframe digital development.

Registration and regional impact

According to the event programme, working sessions will examine practical case studies from the Global South, including farmer-led data cooperatives in India, multilingual linguistic systems across Indonesia and Malaysia, worker organising in the Philippines, and national AI initiatives in Vietnam. The convenors intend to formulate a collective set of principles known as the Bangkok Theses alongside a shared glossary of cooperative AI standards. A pre-conference workshop coordinated by IT for Change also examines feminist perspectives across the technology stack. Prospective delegates can view schedule details and register through the official portal at https://platform.coop/events/solidarity-ai/.