About Us

Building the future of rural AI leadership.

Mission

To transform rural communities from passive recipients to active leaders in the AI economy through education, infrastructure, and innovation.

Training and Education

Constantly curated and contextualized

Shared Infrastructure

Making AI development affordable

Business Incubators

Keeping innovation local

We operate at the intersection of higher education and economic development, positioning rural America as an untapped asset offering real advantages to any organization willing to partner in good faith.

Our success is measured in: farms that become more productive, clinics that serve patients better, students who build AI careers without leaving home, and rural voices with real influence where AI's future is being decided.

Vision

A future where rural America is a full and active participant in the AI economy.

1,000+

Rural-serving and tribal institutions serving as regional AI knowledge hubs—where communities don't just use AI, they create it, own it, and benefit from it.

2030

Rural North America recognized as a proving ground for ethical, community-controlled AI that works in the real world, not just in labs.

This isn't about catching up. It's about establishing a new model where AI development is anchored in community relationships, tested against real-world complexity, and designed with the consent and participation of the people it affects.

Our Story

The Center for Rural AI emerged from a simple observation: the most transformative technology of our generation is being built with little rural input, little rural data, and minimal rural benefit.

2024

Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado launched one of the nation's first AI institutes at a rural public institution.

2025

CRAI's Founder, Andrew Aitken, joins Fort Lewis' AI Institute as an Adviser and begins to understand the scope of the disadvantage rural America operates when trying to participate in the AI economy.

2026

From our Four Corners base, we're building a national movement — delivering workshops, launching our first pilots, and joining coalitions like the Colorado Thrives AI Fellows Program. The Center for Rural AI was established to build rural AI capacity and sovereignty at scale, operating as a fiscally sponsored project of SW Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3).

Why This Matters Now: The next five years will determine whether rural America participates in the AI economy or is further marginalized by it. The patterns established now will persist for decades.

Rural America doesn't need saving. It needs investment, infrastructure, and respect as an equal partner in building the AI future.

How We Govern Our Work

Values

Community-first development, distributed infrastructure, ethical innovation, practical excellence, inclusive opportunity, and independence without dependence — we accept partner, philanthropic, and corporate funding without ceding community ownership, data rights, or editorial voice.

Legal & financial

CRAI is a fiscally sponsored project of SW Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3). Funds are received and administered through our fiscal sponsor; gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. EIN 41-2598469.

Leadership & advisers

See our Team page for the people building CRAI and the advisers guiding it. [Confirm board/advisory members to list here.]

Tribal & Community Data Sovereignty

Data gathered from, about, or with a tribal nation or rural community belongs to that nation or community. CRAI does not collect, train on, publish, or commercialize such data without explicit, documented consent. Our review process has four light-touch steps:

Ask first, and ask whom to ask.

We identify and approach the appropriate authority and ask how that nation or community wishes to make decisions.

Agree in writing, in plain language.

We co-sign a short data agreement covering what data is involved, its purpose, access, duration, model use, benefit-sharing, and how consent can change.

Community holds the controls.

The community can review outputs before publication, see how its data is used, set storage and access conditions, and withdraw data or consent.

Revisit on a schedule the community sets.

Consent is not permanent; we agree on a check-in cadence and update as needs change.

This process is designed to be compatible with the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance and OCAP®. Where a nation already follows its own protocol, that protocol takes precedence.

Meet the people building this

Founders, volunteers, and advisers working to advance rural AI.

Meet the Team →