A Roadmap for Action: Make AI a Fight About Power, Not Progress

The AI Now Institute reframes the AI debate from a narrative of technical progress or existential threat to a struggle over power-specifically, who holds it and to whose benefit it is used. The report argues that AI systems, promoted as neutral innovation or inevitable transformation, serve to concentrate control in the hands of a few powerful tech firms. These companies leverage AI to dominate labour markets, gatekeep infrastructure, harvest private data, and influence both economic and political systems-all while pushing ALGORITHMIC “efficiency” that masks the centralization of power.

To challenge this, the roadmap outlines five strategic levers for action:

1. Expose how AI systems undermine working-class and public interests, tying AI harms to everyday economic struggles.
2. Mobilize workers and align labour advocacy with AI resistance efforts.
3. Implement “zero-trust” AI policies, shifting the burden of proof to companies to demonstrate their systems cause no harm.
4. Bridge advocacy networks-uniting experts, policymakers, media, and community organizers to reshape narratives and build collective power.
5. Advocate for a public-focused innovation agenda, where AI is treated as one tool among many in service of public needs and democratic values, not as the default driver of progress.

By centering power dynamics instead of technical inevitability, the AI Now Institute offers a pathway to reclaim democratic agency in shaping AI’s future-ensuring it bolsters autonomy, dignity, and justice rather than deepening tech oligarchy.