AI Now Institute

What it is

The AI Now Institute is an American research institute that studies the social implications of artificial intelligence, and carries out policy research that addresses the concentration of power in the tech industry^[1]. It describes its own output as diagnosis and policy research on artificial intelligence^[2]. In practice that means two connected kinds of work: describing how AI systems are actually deployed in institutions, and arguing for rules that limit how much control a small number of companies has over those systems.

Where it came from

The institute grew out of a 2016 symposium organized by the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, led by Meredith Whittaker and Kate Crawford^[1]. In November 2017 it held a second symposium and publicly launched the AI Now Institute in partnership with New York University^[1]. It has since been described as the first university research institute focused on the social implications of AI, and the first AI institute founded and led by women^[1].

That origin matters for how the institute works. It began as a conversation between researchers and policymakers rather than as a corporate lab, and it kept the habit of turning research findings into recommendations aimed at government agencies.

What it publishes

AI Now puts out an annual report on the state of AI and its integration into society^[1]. The 2017 report stated that "current framings of AI ethics are failing" and called for an end to "black box" systems in core social domains such as criminal justice, healthcare, welfare and education^[1]. The argument was not that such systems are technically unworkable, but that opaque decision-making is unacceptable where the consequences for individuals are severe.

In April 2018 AI Now released a framework for algorithmic impact assessments, as a way for governments to assess the use of AI in public agencies^[1]. The idea borrows the shape of familiar environmental or privacy impact statements: before a public body adopts an automated system, it documents what the system does, who is affected, and how it can be checked.

The 2023 report argued that meaningful reform of the tech sector must focus on addressing concentrated power in the tech industry^[1] — restating the institute's central claim that many AI problems are problems of market and institutional structure, not only of model design.

Independence and people

AI Now is now a fully independent institute^[1]. As of mid-2022 it operates as an independent organization and does not accept funding from corporate donors, including the tech industry it aims to hold accountable^[2]. That funding rule is directly tied to its subject matter: an institute whose research concerns the power of technology companies is in an awkward position if those companies pay for it.

Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West serve as AI Now's executive directors^[1], and the institute lists them as co-executive directors, with Meredith Whittaker as Chief Advisor^[2]. From 2021 to 2022 Kak, Myers West and Whittaker served as Senior Advisors on AI to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan^[1]; the institute's leadership were invited to advise the US Federal Trade Commission on artificial intelligence in 2021^[2].

Why it matters

AI Now sits at the junction between academic research and technology policy. Its annual reports give journalists, legislators and civil servants a compact account of what is happening in AI and where the risks fall; its impact-assessment framework offers public agencies an actual procedure rather than a principle. And its insistence that ethics cannot be separated from power — from who owns the systems, who audits them, and who bears the cost when they fail — became one of the more widely repeated positions in the field's public debate.