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People’s AI Action Plan Launches to Provide Counter-Weight to Trump’s Industry-Backed AI Plan and EOs

Facebook blocked my family. We have no idea why.

Big Tech’s power "is contingent on a public that is submissive [and] passive,” as Amba Kak says in Brian Bergstein’s Boston Globe piece. But that's changing. The public is reasserting power and demanding a say in our technological future.

Why the AI moratorium’s defeat may signal a new political era

The moratorium fight may have signaled a bigger political shift. “In the last few months, we’ve seen a much broader and more diverse coalition form in support of AI regulation generally,” says Amba Kak, co–executive director of the AI Now Institute. After years of relative inaction, politicians are getting concerned about the risks of unregulated artificial intelligence.

What Open AI Doesn’t Want You to Know

AI companies are spending millions to get the laws they want. They're not trying to cure cancer, or save America. These companies want to make $100 billion overnight, and they're willing to sponsor dangerous laws to make it happen.

Senators Came to Their Senses on AI Regulation Ban

“If there’s one lesson from the last decade of social media,” Kak added, “it’s that it’s difficult, maybe even impossible, to catch up with this tech sector once business models and practices have already been entrenched.”

The GOP bill that would unleash AI is getting closer to passing. AI Now’s Amba Kak says the plan keeps getting worse.

A wide swath of groups and lawmakers from across the political spectrum have raised alarms about the proposal to ban state-level regulations of AI for the next five years.

Facing a Changing Industry, AI Activists Rethink Their Strategy

California seeks new guardrails on automated AI systems

In California, the state Senate has voted in favor of a so-called AI Bill of Rights, which would establish new guardrails around automated decision systems (ADS). To learn more about them, Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Kate Brennan, associate director of the think tank AI Now Institute.

‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ could block AI regulations for 10 years, leaving its harms unchecked

"I can imagine that for lawmakers, Republican or Democrat, whose districts rely on BEAD funding for broadband access to their rural communities, it's really a strange bargain," Kak said.

The Storm Clouds Looming Past the State Moratorium: Weak Regulation is as Bad as None

We must remain vigilant against a scenario that’s as harmful as no regulation itself: weak regulation that serves to legitimize the AI industry’s behavior and continue business as usual. A federal law that imposes baseline transparency disclosures and then restricts states’ ability to impose additional—or stricter—requirements could place us on a dangerous trajectory of inaction.

Big AI isn’t just lobbying Washington—it’s joining it

On Tuesday, the AI Now Institute, a research and advocacy nonprofit that studies the social implications of AI, released a report that accused AI companies of “pushing out shiny objects to detract from the business reality while they desperately try to derisk their portfolios through government subsidies and steady public-sector (often carceral or military) contracts.” The organization says the public needs “to reckon with the ways in which today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us.” 

NYC Book Launch: Empire of AI

Expert Perspectives on 10-Year Moratorium on Enforcement of US State AI Laws

The recent proposal for a sweeping moratorium on all state AI-related legislation and enforcement flies in the face of common sense: We can’t treat the industry’s worst players with kid gloves while leaving everyday people, workers, and children exposed to egregious forms of harm. Industry claims that state laws are a “burdensome” “patchwork” of unwieldy and complex laws is not grounded in fact.

AI can steal your voice, and there’s not much you can do about it

AI Now Co-ED Amba Kak Testifies Against a Ten-Year Ban on State AI Enforcement Before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce

Californians would lose AI protections under bill advancing in Congress

It’s reasonable to interpret one of the exceptions to mean states like California could continue enforcing privacy law if this bill passed, said Amba Kak, codirector of The AI Now Institute, a research and equitable AI advocacy organization. But doing so is risky. “We can’t count on the fact that courts will see it this way, especially in the context of an otherwise sweeping moratorium with the clear intention to clamp down on AI-related enforcement,” she said.

US AI laws risk becoming more ‘European’ than Europe’s

At the state level, there is “incredible momentum” to fill the regulatory vacuum created by Washington’s inaction, according to Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute. States are determined to tackle the most “abhorrent, harmful and problematic” use cases of AI, she says.

New Report on the National Security Risks from Weakened AI Safety Frameworks