# Who can challenge the decision matters

[Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/ai-now-public-power)

The authors argue that AI’s direction is a political choice. They call for worker organizing, enforceable limits and public accountability, so affected people can contest how institutions use AI rather than accept its expansion as inevitable.

Headline and sourced paraphrase by Escape Meridian. Inclusion is not endorsement.

## Original source

AI Now Institute · Authored report chapter

Original source date: Jun 3, 2025 (2025-06-03).

Date basis: Publication date displayed on the chapter and parent report.

Original publisher text read on 2026-09-22; a short editorial paraphrase is stored, not the underlying work.

The date this reading was added to Escape Meridian is not recorded.

- [A Roadmap for Action: Make AI a Fight About Power, Not Progress](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/4-a-roadmap-for-action-make-ai-a-fight-about-power-not-progress)
- [Opening argument and strategic recommendations](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/4-a-roadmap-for-action-make-ai-a-fight-about-power-not-progress)

## Limits

Its recommendations express political values. The chapter’s cited cases require their own source checks before being reused as factual allegations.


## Editorial test, not a stated concession

Compare interventions by whether affected people gain usable remedies and influence. Formal procedures that leave decisions untouched would challenge the proposed strategy.


## supports

The chapter proposes worker organizing and scrutiny across the AI supply chain, including model developers, rather than relying only on downstream users.

- [Supporting source](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/4-a-roadmap-for-action-make-ai-a-fight-about-power-not-progress)

## Source and contributor context

Kate Brennan, Amba Kak & Sarah Myers West · Authors of AI Now’s 2025 Landscape Report

Policy researchers examining AI industry structure and public accountability.

This is a policy agenda and analysis, not a neutral experiment or a technical impossibility proof.

Declared interests are limited to the records linked here; absence of a record does not establish absence of an interest.

- [Report authorship](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/ai-now-2025-landscape-report)
- [Institute research and funding](https://ainowinstitute.org/about)
- [AI Now advocates public accountability and states that it does not accept corporate funding.](https://ainowinstitute.org/about)

## Assumptions

Editorial reconstruction: collective organizing and enforceable rules can change institutional incentives.

Editorial reconstruction: affected people should have practical power over deployment decisions.


## Source media

Media retrieval status: found.

- [Article illustration · AI Now Institute](https://ainowinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250529-Ch4-web.png)

## Questions between perspectives

Editorial comparison; no direct exchange established: Is the ability to adapt a model enough, or does meaningful choice also require institutional power?

Editorial comparison; no direct exchange established: How could a broad promise of human freedom become enforceable decision-making power?

- [Related reading](/readings/lecun-open-model-pluralism)
- [Related reading](/readings/wissner-gross-human-options)

## Terms and references

Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.


## Kate Brennan

Kate Brennan is an AI Now Institute researcher and coauthor of its 2025 report on power and policy in AI.

- [Explore this context](/entities/kate-brennan)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/about)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/ai-now-2025-landscape-report)

## Amba Kak

Amba Kak is a policy researcher at AI Now Institute working on public accountability and the power behind AI systems.

- [Explore this context](/entities/amba-kak)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/about)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/ai-now-2025-landscape-report)

## Sarah Myers West

Sarah Myers West is an AI Now Institute researcher examining technology, corporate power and public policy.

- [Explore this context](/entities/sarah-myers-west)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/contributor/sarah-myers-west)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/research/ai-now-2025-landscape-report)

## AI Now Institute

AI Now Institute studies the power and institutions shaping AI and advocates for public accountability.

- [Explore this context](/entities/ai-now)
- [Reference](https://ainowinstitute.org/)

## Corrections and challenges

[Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/)

[JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/ai-now-public-power.json)