Sarah Myers West

Managing Director, AI Now Institute

To build artificial intelligence today, you need access to massive amounts of data and the computing power needed to process that data. Both of these resources are concentrated in the hands of a very small number of companies, giving them a tremendous amount of economic and political power. But who’s really being served by this technology?

At AI Now Institute, we develop diagnoses and policy research that ensures AI supports the public interest. We are a Ford grantee and in 2023, we published a report on computational power and AI that identifies six regulatory agencies around the world that are opening or have recently concluded investigations into concentration in the infrastructures needed to build AI. This means there is a growing focus on applying existing law to make sure AI serves the underlying needs of the public. We need this increase in regulatory friction, as well as more campaigning for accountability—and we need a new vision of what AI for the public good looks like.

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