Geeks Back Back: AI House and UW’s Center for Knowledgeable Community to be Honored at GeekWire Awards
Each year, the GeekWire Awards celebrate creative endeavors that are making a meaningful impact in the Pacific Northwest. This year’s Geeks Give Back honorees build community and share knowledge – one focused on advancing AI innovation, the other on education and research in our rapidly evolving media landscape.
Honorees are AI House, the nation’s first center to foster collaboration in the burgeoning field of AI, and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Society (CIP), a program that teaches everyone from students to seniors how to spot rumors and misinformation.
The GeekWire Awards will recognize nearly 50 winners and honorees in multiple categories, from Startup of the Year to Next Tech Titan. Geeks Give Back honorees are selected by public nominations and input from the awards judges.
Geeks Give Back is presented again this year by BECU.
Winners will receive their coveted robot trophies live on stage on May 7 at Showbox SoDo in Seattle. Single tickets are on sale now — take a seat here — and read on to learn more about this year’s Geeks Give Back honorees.
AI Houses
Since its launch a little over a year ago, AI House has hosted more than 150 events at its co-working space at Seattle’s Pier 70. The 108,000-square-foot waterfront space brings together entrepreneurs, investors, students and community leaders to foster big ideas and build connections in the pursuit of AI innovation.
The program was launched at the AI2 Incubator, which is a start-up organization and business, and provides a collaborative working environment for companies, including those affiliated with the incubator.
The AI House calendar features events ranging from monthly Pitch Please gatherings, which led to AI2 Incubator investment, to interviews with key leaders. The organization has also created complementary groups for women founders, mental health founders and B2C founders.
Yifan Zhang, managing director of AI House, says that he often meets people who are new to Seattle – whether they have just moved or graduated, have been building independently, or have left Big Tech and want to know about the startup world.
“They are often surprised and excited to come to a place like AI House when they start exploring,” Zhang said. “This is important because for Seattle’s first location to be successful, we need it to be much bigger than it is today. Our vision is that AI House can be a ‘big tent.’
His goal is for everyone who visits to walk away meeting someone new and gaining an idea they hadn’t thought of before – which opens up new opportunities for his business.
Center for Information Society (CIP)
When the UW’s Center for an Informed Public launched in 2019 with a $5 million grant, the main concerns were misinformation threatening the upcoming election and the role of social media in creating rumors. CIP is committed to better understanding the sources of misinformation and mapping how it spreads, and educating the public on how to spot and prevent it.
More than six years later, unsubstantiated information is making its way onto social media, influencer posts, and many news outlets. Generative AI tools that render images and videos — and help users craft compelling, persuasive messages — continue to proliferate.
In response, CIP is expanding its efforts: connecting professors across disciplines, hosting high school students, librarians and teachers, and equipping people with the tools they need to make sense of modern life.
“CIP is an organization focused on research and information production, but actually serving local communities around campus, and across the region, across the country, around the world,” said Emma Spiro, CIPs faculty director and UW Information School professor.
Recent highlights include the launch of a free online humanities course titled “Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?” exploring the use of AI; co-hosting an intergenerational AI event with high school students and adults; and webinars such as “Understanding and Navigating Political Divides” and “Preparing Knowledgeable Citizens for an AI-Powered World.”
Spiro credits the people involved with CIP for its impact. “We have been really successful in finding those people who are aligned with the mission, who are driven by good principles invested in the mission and who are willing to do what can be a controversial job at times,” he said.
Astound Business Solutions is the presenting sponsor of the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Thanks also to gold sponsors Amazon Sustainability, Baird, BECU, JLL, First Tech and Wilson Sonsini, and silver sponsors Prime Team Partners.
