Melanie Rideout is an AI strategist at the Swedish Red Cross, part of a department for AI innovation and digital transformation set up a year ago. Her job is to work out where new technology genuinely helps the humanitarian mission — in an organisation whose protection mandate now has to cover cyberattacks and critical infrastructure as well as active combat.

She brings three directions to the Blockathon in Stockholm. Continuity of services for people crossing borders, so that access to healthcare, medication and cash does not break when someone moves. Crisis communication: a secure, scalable messaging service that does not rest on ordinary social platforms, building on the ICRC's White Flag protocol and on the 18,000 volunteers in Sweden who coordinate on the ground. And verifiable information, protecting archives and giving people a way to know that what they read can be trusted.

She leaves the choice open, and asks which one is worth building.

Recorded with Zarina Björklund Rehn at one of Kaupr's three virtual pre-events ahead of FirstBlock-athon, the hackathon week in Stockholm 7–11 September. Eleven minutes.