About us
We are the association “AI Forschungsinstitut für Menschen”. A non-profit association based in Vienna, registered in the Austrian central register of associations since 5 June 2026. Its registration number is 1547230392.
Why we do this
Through the work of this association we want to help people take part in science and education in the age of artificial intelligence.
How it started: in July 2025 our founder Petar lost his sight. He is a music producer. He refused to accept that he would never again do the thing he loves most. A year later, PapoNox exists: software that lets blind people work professionally in the music application Logic.
How we do it
We are practitioners. Our thinking turns into things that can be used: skills for agents and for the interfaces of large language models, frameworks, and software.
What we learn along the way, we publish — as scientific documentation, as open code repositories, or as freely available open-source material. That way we can share our findings and our solutions with the people who need them most.
What we work on
Topics we are particularly interested in: accessibility and digital participation · assistive technology · algorithmic fairness · AI safety and data protection · testing and evaluating AI systems · AI ethics
We do research where artificial intelligence decides who gets to take part: at the points where technology includes people or shuts them out.
Participation as equals
Technical development helps decide who can take part in the digital world. We research and teach artificial intelligence in a way that lets people with and without disabilities take part on equal terms.
That ranges from tools that make a workplace accessible in the first place to the question of how you can tell whether an AI system is acting for the right reasons.
Have your say
We are looking for collaboration. With researchers, with advocacy organisations, with people who use assistive technology at work or would like to, and with institutions that want to make workplaces and training accessible.
Team
A team that has worked together for over ten years in digital literacy and digital media production. Focus: access, participation and representation.
- Petar
- Founder of the association; music producer, software developer
Over twenty years as a sound engineer and music producer.
Lost his sight on 24 July 2025. In the same year he developed the idea for PapoNox — software that lets blind and partially sighted people produce music with professional tools.
- Dejan
- Prototype & implementation Built the prototype of PapoNox. He is already working on the next piece of software, Click.
- Vesna
- Audio production & validation Petar’s daughter, over fifteen years in music production. Tester of PapoNox.
- Branislav
- Architecture & system level Petar’s father, over thirty years as a developer. Responsible for the technical architecture. Formerly a technician at an Apple systems house.
- Atum
- Research methodology, software design, transdisciplinary thinking
- 20 years in journalism, focusing on human rights and minorities
- 10 years in digital education
- 5 years of research on institutional and state justice
- 1 year in software development with AI
- for fair digital participation for everyone
You can reach the association at office@aifim.at.