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Facing a Changing Industry, AI Activists Rethink Their Strategy

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

Phase two of military AI has arrived

But the complexity of AI systems, which pull from thousands of pieces of data, make that a herculean task for humans, says Heidy Khlaaf, who is chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, a research organization, and previously led safety audits for AI-powered systems. “‘Human in the loop’ is not always a meaningful mitigation,” she says.

Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military

Khlaaf adds that even if humans are “double-checking” the work of AI, there's little reason to think they're capable of catching every mistake. “‘Human-in-the-loop’ is not always a meaningful mitigation,” she says. When an AI model relies on thousands of data points to come to conclusions, “it wouldn't really be possible for a human to sift through that amount of information to determine if the AI output was erroneous.

DeepMind’s 145-page paper on AGI safety may not convince skeptics

Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the nonprofit AI Now Institute, told TechCrunch that she thinks the concept of AGI is too ill-defined to be “rigorously evaluated scientifically.

Felled by the Deregulatory Headwinds: DOJ’s Reversal on AI Divestiture in the Google Search Case

Bold antitrust remedies—like the divestiture remedy initially recommended by the Department of Justice in the Google search monopoly case—are necessary to meet this current moment shaped by Big Tech dominance.Google, Microsoft, and Amazon control AI infrastructure from chips to cloud and deploy their vast resources to lock in users, influence regulation, and shape the political narrative.

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

There are legitimate uses for AI voice cloning, including helping people with disabilities and creating audio translations of people speaking in different languages. But there is also enormous potential for harm, said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, a think tank that focuses on the consequences of AI policy.

As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies

“This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and former senior safety engineer at OpenAI. “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.”

As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies

“This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and former senior safety engineer at OpenAI. “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.”

AI Now Statement on the UK AI Safety Institute transition to the UK AI Security Institute