The Power, Challenges, and Roadmap for Action of Artificial Intelligence

Key Chapter Title List

1. Executive Summary: Challenging Technological Monopoly and the "Inevitable" AI Narrative
2. The False Myths of AI: The Narrative Structure Supporting the AI Bubble
3. Heads They Win: How Tech Companies Manipulate the AI Market
4. The Record: How AI Consistently Harms the Public Interest
5. Roadmap for Action: Shifting the AI Debate to a Power Struggle
6. Epilogue: The World We Want (And Why the Current AI Trajectory Won't Deliver It)

Document Introduction

This report, released by the AI Now Institute in June 2025, aims to critically examine the current development trajectory of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry and its role in reshaping social power. The report's core argument posits that the AI narrative dominated by Big Tech portrays technological change as an "inevitable" process, which in reality serves the political-economic goals of consolidating and expanding their market monopolies while weakening public accountability. The AI field has been dominated by a "bigger is better" paradigm, which aligns closely with tech giants' control over computational resources, data, and talent, leading to excessive concentration of power and obscuring fundamental flaws and market bubbles inherent in the technology itself.

The report has a rigorous structure, first deconstructing the four major "false myths" that underpin the AI industry's dominance: the vague promises surrounding "Artificial General Intelligence" (AGI), reliance on "too big to fail" infrastructure and capital push, leveraging the narrative of a U.S.-China AI arms race to evade regulation, and redefining regulation as an obstacle to innovation. Subsequently, the report provides an in-depth analysis of how tech giants ensure they "can't lose" in the AI market through cloud infrastructure lock-in, ecosystem control, and strategic investments in data centers, while transferring financial, environmental, and community risks to the public and society. By reviewing a decade of evidence from fields such as education, healthcare, agriculture, immigration enforcement, and government services, the report clearly states that the actual deployment of AI often exacerbates inequality, erodes professional expertise, enforces fiscal austerity policies, and is generally coercive, infringing upon civil rights and due process.

Based on this analysis, the report proposes a roadmap for action centered on "power, not progress." Its strategic levers include: precisely targeting the AI industry as a key actor harming the public interest; promoting worker organization as a core force resisting AI extraction; developing a strict policy agenda based on a "zero-trust" principle throughout the AI lifecycle; bridging expertise, policy domains, and narrative networks to enhance advocacy effectiveness; and reimagining a technology innovation agenda that is not AI-centric but serves the public interest.

The report ultimately envisions a world characterized by good jobs, shared prosperity, freedom and autonomy, a sustainable future, a strong social safety net, security, an innovative technology ecosystem, and a vibrant democracy. It argues that the current AI development trajectory driven by tech oligarchs is fundamentally at odds with this vision. The report aims to provide policymakers, social movement advocates, and researchers with a set of analytical tools and a strategic framework to counter the irresponsible power of the AI industry.