Leveraging AI Regulation for Inclusive Design: The High-Risk EU AI Act Toolkit (HEAT) | Tomasz Hollanek

This talk explores how the EU AI Act can be used to foster power-sensitive, inclusive AI design, despite not mandating stakeholder participation. I present the High-risk EU AI Act Toolkit (HEAT)—an ethical AI framework co-developed by the University of Cambridge and Ammagamma (now part of Accenture)—which adopts a pro-justice, feminist-informed approach to stakeholder engagement.

Drawing on my research on AI ethics toolkits and experience teaching participatory design, I demonstrate how HEAT guides teams in identifying and meaningfully engaging both direct and indirect stakeholders, with a focus on marginalised and minoritised groups. The toolkit addresses risks of tokenism by advocating for stakeholder compensation, influence, and agency throughout the design process. I argue that protecting fundamental rights like human dignityrequires engagement that goes beyond consultation—empowering stakeholders to shape both the process and the product of AI development.

More about HEAT: https://www.lcfi.ac.uk/resources/heat-high-risk-eu-ai-toolkit

Dr Tomasz Hollanek is a Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, working at the intersection of AI ethics and critical design. His ongoing research explores the possibility of applying critical design methods – prioritising the goals of social justice and environmental sustainability – in the governance, development, and deployment of AI systems. This includes work on the ethics of human-AI interaction design (in particular, the design of companion chatbots and griefbots) and the In-depth EU AI Act Toolkit, helping developers translate the requirements of the European Union’s AI Act into design practice.

Previously, Tomasz was a Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Scholar at Cambridge and a Visiting Research Fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has contributed to numerous research projects, including the Global AI Narratives Project at LCFI and the Ethics of Digitalization research program at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.