Overview
Artificial Power, our 2025 Landscape Report, puts forward an actionable strategy for the public to reclaim agency over the future of AI. In the aftermath of the “AI boom,” the report examines how the push to integrate AI products everywhere grants AI companies – and the tech oligarchs that run them – power that goes far beyond their deep pockets. We need to reckon with the ways in which today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. The report moves from diagnosis to action: offering concrete strategies for community organizers, policymakers, and the public to change this trajectory.
Acknowledgments
Authored by Kate Brennan, Amba Kak, and Dr. Sarah Myers West.
With research support from Mohammed Ali, Yasmine Chokrane, Madeline Kim, Tekendra Parmar, Tanya Raja, and Boxi Wu.
Special thanks to Rhiana Gunn-Wright for her feedback and editorial contributions.
Project management by Ellen Schwartz.
Copyediting by Caren Litherland.
Design by Partner & Partners.
With contributions and feedback from:
- Annette Bernhardt, UC Berkeley Labor Center
- Abeba Birhane, Artificial Intelligence Accountability Lab, Trinity College Dublin
- Brian Chen, Data & Society
- Jane Chung, Justice Speaks
- Stefanie Coyle, New York Civil Liberties Union
- Andrea Dehlendorf, AI Now
- Kevin DeLiban, TechTonic Justice
- Becca Deutsch, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice
- Alix Dunn, The Maybe
- Ali Finn, AI Now
- Timnit Gebru, Distributed AI Research Center
- Ryan Gerety, Athena Coalition
- Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen
- Sam Gordon, Tech Equity Collaborative
- Janet Haven, Data & Society
- Nidhi Hegde, American Economic Liberties Project
- Ben Inskeep, Citizen Action Coalition of Indiana
- Taylor Jo Isenberg, Economic Security Project
- Heidy Khlaaf, AI Now
- Stephen Lerner, Action Center for Race and the Economy – Bargaining for the Common Good
- Barry Lynn, Open Markets Institute
- Varoon Mathur, Duke Institute for Health Innovation,
Duke Health - Jill McArdle, Beyond Fossil Fuels
- Michelle Meagher, SOMO
- Brian Merchant, Independent Journalist
- Erie Meyer, Georgetown University
- Sarah Miller, American Economic Liberties Project
- Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- Arvind Narayanan, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University
- Chris Nielsen, National Nurses United
- Teri Olle, Economic Security Project
- Britt Paris, Rutgers University
- Tekendra Parmar, Investigative Journalist
- Reshma Ramachandran, Yale School of Medicine
- Steven Renderos, MediaJustice
- Rashida Richardson, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
& Northeastern University - Hilary Ronen, Local Progress
- Leevi Saari, AI Now
- Hannah Sassaman, People’s Tech Project
- Matt Scherer, Center for Democracy and Technology
- Paromita Shah, Just Futures Law
- Ganesh Sitaraman, Vanderbilt University
- Andrew Strait, UK AI Security Institute
- Kasia Tarczynska, Good Jobs First
- Jim Thomas, Scanthehorizon.org
- Max Von Thun, Open Markets Institute
- Jai Vipra, Cornell University
- Robert Weissman, Public Citizen
- Meredith Whittaker, Signal
- Savannah Wilson, Clean Virginia
- Boxi Wu, Oxford University
Cite as: Kate Brennan, Amba Kak, and Sarah Myers West, “Artificial Power: AI Now 2025 Landscape”, AI Now Institute, June 3, 2025, https://ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape.