View the joint statement and coalition website here
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, a broad coalition of 90+ tech, economic justice, consumer protection, labor, environmental justice, and civil society organizations launched the People’s AI Action Plan to provide a direct counter-weight to President Trump’s industry-backed AI executive orders and agenda, which will be announced over the coming days. For more information on the People’s AI Action, including coalition partners and policy proposals, please click here.
“The White House AI Action Plan is written by Big Tech interests invested in advancing AI that’s used on us, not by us. Today, we are reclaiming agency over the trajectory AI will take: it’s time for a People’s Action Plan for AI that puts the needs of everyday Americans over corporate profits,” said Sarah Myers West and Amba Kak, Co-Executive Directors, AI Now Institute.
“The Trump Administration’s latest AI directive is a billion-dollar giveaway to Big Tech that puts corporate profits ahead of public safety. AI is already harming workers, consumers, and communities—and instead of enforcing guardrails, this administration is gutting oversight. After the AI moratorium was defeated 99-1 under massive public pressure, the message from the public was clear: no more handouts for Trump’s tech bro buddies. We need rules and accountability—not a Silicon Valley free-for-all,” said J.B. Branch, Big Tech Accountability Advocate at Public Citizen.
“Nurses are opposed to our patients being used as guinea pigs for unregulated and untested AI technology. We support AI when it is used to improve our ability to care for our patients, not when it is used by industry to cut labor costs and increase profits at the expense of patients. A People’s AI Action Plan is needed to protect our patients from industry’s rush to profit off our patients’ lives,” said Cathy Kennedy, RN, National Nurses United President.
“The current administration’s AI directive is anti-ethical progress and codifies the tech oligarchy’s vision for a future where all of humanity is a footnote to technical advancement. True progress does not hinge on the continued extraction of life from historically oppressed communities and environmental degradation that AI has been accelerating with its data centers. We need a People’s Action Plan that centers support for our humanity, not its continued sacrifice,” said KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP)
People’s AI Action Plan Mission:
The advancement of American AI must deliver first and foremost for the American people. We can’t let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families’ well-being, even the air we breathe and the water we drink – all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable roll-out of AI.
The American people need good, stable jobs, functioning public institutions, safe online spaces for children, and clean, affordable, safe and reliable energy. The American economy needs robust innovation, a level playing field for all, and relief from the tech monopolies that repeatedly sacrifice the interests of everyday people for their own profits.
That’s why we need a People’s AI Action Plan that delivers on public well-being, shared prosperity, a sustainable future, and security for all.
About the People’s Action Plan:
A People’s AI Action Plan is one that delivers on public well-being, shared prosperity, a sustainable future, and security for all. The concrete pathways for this vision will live in the collective work of the many organizations that endorse this effort, differing across issue areas and sectors – from labor to climate to children’s online safety and immigration – and united in ensuring a trajectory for AI that puts people first, rather than the interests of tech billionaires.
Background:
For years, private tech companies have been pushing unsafe AI technologies into the most sensitive spheres of our lives—including our schools, our workplaces, our hospitals, and our children’s screens. Overwhelmingly, AI systems are deployed in coercive and high-stakes settings like immigration and policing, where people’s rights are routinely violated. Teachers, workers, healthcare providers, parents, and those communities most impacted by AI systems must drive the decision-making processes for where and how AI systems are implemented—including the decision that some AI technologies are never used at all.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump issued an Executive Order on artificial intelligence, which amounts to a massive handout to the tech industry. The Executive Order requires the development of an “AI action plan” by July 23, 2025, designed to create a false choice between safety and innovation.
Since then, the AI industry has mounted a full-court press on Washington to shape the “AI dominance” agenda in service of their interests. The industry has ramped up lobbying efforts to attack regulation, including a recent attempt in Congress to be granted immunity from state AI laws for ten years, which was shot down in a 99-1 vote after public outcry.
The AI industry has now submitted a wishlist of policy recommendations to the writers of the action plan—a group of tech leaders with deep connections to Silicon Valley, venture capital, and the defense tech industry. This lobbying is likely to pay off exponentially, as recent reporting indicates that the Trump Administration plans to use the action plan on July 23 to celebrate the government’s commitment to “expanding” the AI industry.
One thing is certain: an AI action plan written by and for tech billionaires cannot and will not serve the interests of the broader public. We cannot let Big Tech special interests buy Washington and write the rules for AI and our economy.
Coalition Members:
- A People’s Guide to Tech
- Accountable Tech
- Action Center on Race and the Economy
- AFT | Education, Healthcare, Public Services
- AI for the People
- AI Now Institute
- Algorithmic Justice League
- Amazon Employees for Climate Justice
- American Association of University Professors
- American Economic Liberties Project
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC
- Athena Coalition
- Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network
- BetaNYC, a partner project of the Fund for the City of New York
- Blood in the Machine
- California Initiative for Technology & Democracy
- Center for Democracy & Technology
- Center for Biological Diversity
- Center on Resilience and Digital Justice
- Chips Communities United
- Citizens Action Coalition
- Civics of Technology
- Clean Air Council
- Climate Justice Alliance
- Collaborative Research Center for Resilience
- Collective Action in Tech
- Color Of Change
- Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (Delaware)
- Consumer Federation of America
- Data & Society
- Demand Progress Education Fund
- Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
- Distributed AI Research Institute
- Economic Security California
- Economic Security Project
- Ekō
- Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
- Emory Digital Humanities Lab
- Fight for the Future
- Free Press
- Friends of the Earth
- Georgia Conservation Voters
- Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
- Green America
- Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School
- Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
- Investor Alliance for Human Rights
- Just Futures Law
- Just Transition Northwest Indiana
- Kairos
- Kapor Center Advocacy
- Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Local Progress
- MAMA – Mothers Against Media Addiction
- MediaJustice
- Memphis Community Against Pollution
- National Employment Law Project
- National Organization for Women (NOW)
- New Disabled South
- Open Markets Institute
- Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative)
- Oxfam America
- P Street
- People For the American Way
- People’s Tech Project
- PowerSwitch Action
- Public Citizen
- Public Knowledge
- Revolving Door Project
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- Stand.earth
- Stop Gen AI
- Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice
- Tech Justice Law Project
- Tech Solidarity Lab
- Tech Workers Coalition
- TechEquity
- TechTonic Justice
- Temple University Institute for Law, Innovation & Technology
- The Greenlining Institute
- The Tech Oversight Project
- Towards Justice
- United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry
- Upturn
- William E. Morris Institute for Justice
- Working Partnerships USA
- Writers Guild of America East
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