AI Now Institute
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AI Now Institute researches the social consequences of artificial intelligence and advocates changes to the institutions and markets governing its development. Its work emphasizes concentrated corporate power, surveillance, competition, labor and public accountability. Established in 2017, it describes itself as an independent policy research organization and identifies Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West as co-executive directors.[1]
Organization and funding
AI Now states that it has operated independently since mid-2022 and does not accept corporate donations, including from technology companies whose practices it examines. Its funding description identifies foundations as its current source of support and says that funders do not determine research findings. These are institutional disclosures, rather than an external funding audit.[1]
The institute combines research with advocacy and coalition work. Its published description explicitly seeks changes to commercial surveillance and concentrated power, making its policy objectives part of the subject of coverage rather than a neutral baseline against which all other approaches are judged.[1]
Competition and structural regulation
The April 2023 report Confronting Tech Power, authored by Kak and Myers West, proposes a combination of legal reforms and collective action. It argues for clear restrictions and structural limits, while questioning popular accountability measures that it considers insufficient to change underlying power relationships. The report treats worker organizing and other nonregulatory interventions as relevant to AI governance alongside legislation and enforcement.[2]
Its chapters connect AI policy to data advantages, workplace surveillance, competition law, biometric systems, digital trade and environmental costs. This approach places the organization of the technology industry at the center of analysis. The report's recommendations are advocacy proposals: their publication does not establish that a particular market practice is unlawful or that an agency has adopted the suggested remedy.[2]
Biometrics and comparative legal research
AI Now's September 2020 compendium Regulating Biometrics, edited by Kak, brought together case studies of legal responses to biometric recognition. Its contents include Australia's identity-matching proposal, India's Aadhaar system, European biometric-data regulation, UK police use of facial recognition and US legislative approaches. Other chapters examine humanitarian biometric policies and community opposition to facial recognition in schools.[3]
The collection frames these examples as opportunities to examine both the promise and limitations of law. Its comparative structure is useful for distinguishing rules governing data collection from rules governing particular uses, such as police surveillance. The chapters are dated contributions by different authors, not a continuously updated inventory of current law in each jurisdiction.[3]
Legislative engagement
The institute published an account of Kak's October 18, 2023 testimony before the US House Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce. The hearing concerned safeguarding data and innovation as a foundation for AI use; AI Now's publication presents the testimony in connection with data minimization. October 18 is the hearing date, while October 20 is the institute's publication date. The distinction identifies the actual policy intervention without converting testimony into a congressional finding.[4]
Data centers and local policy
The North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit extends the institute's work to the physical infrastructure supporting AI. It is expressly oriented toward stopping, slowing or restricting data-center expansion through local and state policy. Its issue areas include zoning, water, energy, ratepayer protection, tax incentives, transparency and environmental effects.[5]
The toolkit connects community organizing with public hearings, approval processes and broader changes to regulation. Its recommendations reflect an advocacy position concerning infrastructure development. They should be distinguished from the powers actually available to a particular local authority and from factual findings about any individual facility. The toolkit's significance for AI policy lies in treating resource allocation and local governance as part of the field, alongside rules for models and applications.[5]
Selected contributions
- Regulating Biometrics (2020), a comparative legal compendium.[3]
- 2023 Landscape: Confronting Tech Power, research and reform proposals.[2]
- Congressional data-minimization testimony (October 2023).[4]
- North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit, local and state advocacy resources.[5]
Related articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 AI Now Institute, About Us. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West, 2023 Landscape: Confronting Tech Power, April 11, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 AI Now Institute, Regulating Biometrics: Global Approaches and Open Questions, September 1, 2020. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 AI Now Institute, Amba Kak Testifies Before Congress on Data Minimization, October 20, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 AI Now Institute, About the North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit. Accessed September 12, 2026.