Resource guide

AI Now Institute: Who Funds the Group Pushing AI Rules

A New York research group co-founded in 2017 that argues AI harms stem from concentrated industry power, and says it takes no corporate money.

Last updated October 22, 2026 1492-word guide By Jonathan West

Key takeaways

The AI Now Institute was founded on 15 November 2017 in New York, New York, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit by Kate Crawford and Meredith Whittaker.
Its About page says it does not currently take funding from corporate donors and that its current funding comes from foundations.
The supporters on its About page appear only as logos, and they read as seven funders, including the Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Omidyar Network.
The institute publishes no funding amounts, and ProPublica's record for its registered entity holds no Form 990 financial data.
Its 2023 Landscape report, published 11 April 2023 by Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West, argues that reform of the tech sector must target concentrated power in the industry.
As of 21 October 2026, its About page lists Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West as Co-Executive Directors.
The institute ranks present-day corporate power ahead of hypothetical extinction, a stance it shows through an NBC News repost from 30 May 2023.

The AI Now Institute is a nonprofit that produces policy research on artificial intelligence (AI). Its stated mission is to challenge and reimagine the current trajectory of AI. It launched with New York University in November 2017 and has operated independently since mid-2022.

What the AI Now Institute Argues

The AI Now Institute is a New York research institute co-founded in 2017 by Meredith Whittaker and Kate Crawford. It argues that the problems with AI trace back to power concentrated in a few companies, and it says it takes no corporate money.

The institute's flagship argument appears in its "2023 Landscape: Confronting Tech Power" report. Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West wrote it, and it was published on 11 April 2023. The report argues that meaningful reform of the tech sector must target concentrated power in the industry.

The report says, "This report highlights a set of approaches that, in concert, will collectively enable us to confront tech power." It calls for "bold policy reforms that underscore the need for bright-line rules and structural curbs." Its stated goal is to "ensure that it is the public, not industry, that this technology serves."

The report also argues that some popular policy responses fail to address power imbalances. It highlights non-regulatory approaches, including collective action and worker organizing.

On money, the institute's About page says AI Now "does not currently take funding from corporate donors." It says its "current funding comes from foundations, listed on this page." The page doesn't publish amounts, and it doesn't name the funders in text.

The supporter logos are all it publishes about its funders. Reading the logo images, the names are the Ford Foundation, the Global Fund for a New Economy, the Hewlett Foundation, Luminate, the MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. One logo could not be identified. Because the names come from the images and not from page text, they should be attributed as the supporters shown on AI Now's own site.

The institute describes itself as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. No public source gives its revenue, budget or headcount.

Who Founded It and Who Runs It Now

The institute was founded on 15 November 2017 in New York, New York, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its founders are Kate Crawford and Meredith Whittaker. A second symposium that November launched it publicly, in partnership with New York University (NYU).

The origin goes back further. A 2016 symposium organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) led to the institute. Whittaker led that event as founder of Google's Open Research Group, and Crawford was then a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Wikipedia claims the institute was the first university research institute focused on the social implications of AI.

Its institutional home changed in mid-2022. The About page says, "As of mid-2022, AI Now is operating as an independent organization," and it calls the institute "an independent research institute." Wikipedia says it is "now a fully independent institute" but doesn't give a date for the split. The mid-2022 date comes from the About page.

Wikipedia lists the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the NYU Center for Data Science and the Partnership on AI as partners. Whether those ties survived the move to independence isn't confirmed, so they aren't treated as current here.

The About page lists the current leadership, as read on 21 October 2026.

Name	Title on the About page (read 21 October 2026)
Amba Kak	Co-Executive Director
Sarah Myers West	Co-Executive Director
Heidy Khlaaf	Chief AI Scientist
Kate Brennan	Senior Director
Cynthia Burns	Senior Operations Director
Meredith Whittaker	Chief Advisor

The same page lists Lucy Suchman as board president, Karen Hao as treasurer and Veena Dubal as a director. It also lists fellows, advisors and program staff beyond these names.

Kate Crawford is a co-founder, but she doesn't appear in that leadership list, so she counts as a founder and not a current leader. Meredith Whittaker is listed as chief advisor. Read more about her in the Meredith Whittaker explainer.

ProPublica's nonprofit database lists a registered entity called AI Now Institute Inc. Its employer identification number (EIN) is 33-3562042, and its address is 347 5th Ave Rm 1402 PMB 366, New York, NY 10016. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruling date is 1 June 2025, with 501(c)(3) subsection status. That date is consistent with a recent standalone incorporation after the mid-2022 split from NYU.

A second entity, Ai Now Policy Institute Inc (EIN 33-3604227), also appears in New York in the same database. How the two entities relate isn't explained in any public record, so neither is described here as the other's advocacy arm.

What Its Reports Recommend

The AI Now 2017 Report, dated 18 October 2017, argues that "current framings of AI ethics are failing." It offers ten strategic recommendations, including pre-release trials of AI systems and more research on bias and diversity. It also calls for an end to "black box" systems in criminal justice, healthcare, welfare and education.

In April 2018 the institute published an Algorithmic Impact Assessment framework. It proposes that governments assess public agencies' use of AI the way environmental impact assessments work. Those assessments would carry public disclosure and external expert review.

The 2023 Landscape sets out a policy agenda. Its section headings set out ten targets:

Regulate Big Tech's advantage in data.
Move beyond algorithmic audits toward broader accountability.
Restrain workplace surveillance through rules on algorithmic management.
Pursue structural antitrust reform.
Adopt bright-line rules against expanding biometric surveillance.
Scrutinize international "digital trade" agreements.
Treat AI policy as industrial policy in the US-China context.
Use data minimization as an accountability tool.
Examine the relationship between tech and financial capital.
Address the climate costs of Big Tech.

The report presents these as "strategic guidance." The biometric surveillance item connects to the wider debate covered in the facial recognition ethics explainer.

The institute's people have also moved into government work. Between 2021 and 2022, Amba Kak, Sarah Myers West and Meredith Whittaker served as senior advisors on AI to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan. That placed the institute's researchers directly inside US competition enforcement. For the wider policy fight over these rules, see the AI regulation explainer.

How Its Position Differs From the AI-Doom Camp

The institute puts present-day corporate power ahead of hypothetical extinction. That framing places it on the other side of the existential-risk debate from warnings about human extinction.

The institute's own news page reposts an NBC News article dated 30 May 2023. The excerpt describes its chief adviser, Meredith Whittaker, as having mocked the extinction-risk statement as tech leaders overpromising their product.

The existential-risk wing argues that near-term harms and catastrophic risk both deserve attention.

For a wider map of the groups fighting AI, see who is fighting AI.

The Case Against the AI Now Institute

No published critique of the institute's reports turned up. The points below come from the institute's own materials and from public records.

Independence from industry is not independence from funders. The institute's money comes from a handful of large foundations. The logos on its own page include Ford, Hewlett, MacArthur, Packard, Luminate and Omidyar Network. Each of those funders has its own policy agenda, and the About page doesn't say how the institute's agenda is set against theirs.

Its financial record can't be checked from outside. The institute names its supporters but publishes no amounts. ProPublica's record for AI Now Institute Inc, linked in the sources below, holds no filing-year financial data. That means no public Form 990 revenue, expense or asset figure appears there. An outside reader cannot check its budget from that record.

Its central prescriptions are contested policy positions. Structural antitrust reform, bright-line bans on biometric surveillance and data minimization are arguments about policy. They are not technical findings. The report presents them as "strategic guidance," and readers should treat them as the institute's case.

It sets itself against part of the AI-criticism field. By treating extinction warnings as industry overpromising, the institute takes a side against the existential-risk wing. That makes this a live dispute between two groups that both criticize AI.

Its own report concedes a weakness in an earlier approach. The 2023 Landscape says popular responses, including algorithmic audits, fail to address power imbalances. Earlier accountability work helped popularize that approach, including AI Now's own 2018 impact-assessment framework. Readers weighing that 2018 framework should take the report's concession into account.

To test the funding question yourself, start with the institute's About page, where the supporter logos appear. Then read the 2023 Landscape report and weigh its policy agenda against the funders on that page.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

▸ Where is the AI Now Institute based?

The AI Now Institute was founded in New York, New York, on 15 November 2017. Its registered entity, AI Now Institute Inc, lists a New York, NY 10016 address in ProPublica's nonprofit database. The institute was hosted by NYU until mid-2022, when it began operating as an independent organization.

▸ How did the rise of AI start?

The AI Now Institute traces its own origin to a 2016 symposium organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Meredith Whittaker and Kate Crawford led that symposium, and the institute launched publicly in November 2017.

▸ Which 5 jobs will survive AI?

The AI Now Institute doesn't forecast which jobs survive. Its 2023 Landscape puts restraining workplace surveillance through rules on algorithmic management on its policy agenda, and it treats worker organizing as a non-regulatory route to the same end.

▸ Who funds the AI Now Institute?

The AI Now Institute says it takes no money from corporate donors and is funded by foundations. Its supporters section shows logos rather than text, and the names readable from them are the Ford Foundation, the Global Fund for a New Economy, the Hewlett Foundation, Luminate, the MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. No public source gives its revenue or budget.

▸ Is the AI Now Institute part of NYU?

Not any more. Its own About page says that as of mid-2022 it operates as an independent organization. It was launched in partnership with NYU in November 2017, and older references to that affiliation are out of date.

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