By Suresh Venkatasubramanian
How AI and surveillance capitalism are undermining democracy
The only way data and AI can be used for good is with restrictive controls to prevent damage to democracy.
The AI Power Trip
What is the AI Power Trip?
The AI Power Trip is a year-long Bulletin special project examining how the people and organizations developing artificial intelligence applications are gaining control of the world’s governance, information ecosystems, energy resources, military-industrial complex, and more. Almost three years after its launch into the public sphere, generative artificial intelligence has permeated nearly every crevice of human life. Even those who choose not to use AI directly can’t help but encounter it in everyday tasks—be it conducting an online search, writing an email, chatting with customer support, or receiving a diagnosis from a physician who relied on an app to interpret test results. In other words, in contemporary societies, an encounter with AI is almost inescapable. And while artificial intelligence applications can be useful, the potential for their misuse is clear—and clearly threatening to democratic governance. In this series, the Bulletin harnesses the power of storytelling to reveal how AI is being used as an instrument for profit and domination.
By Allison Stanger
The AI Raj: How tech giants are recolonizing power
Just as the East India Company’s success justified new powers, AI firms seek to leverage technical prowess to assume public functions.
incoming signals
Iran’s internet shutdown tells a larger story: Digital repression is on the rise
Like Iran, governments worldwide rely on internet shutdowns to suppress populations, rig elections and collectively punish their citizens.
What experts can learn by tracking AI harms
Experts can identify and address artificial intelligence's weak points using a database tracking the technology’s harms.
When it all comes crashing down: The aftermath of the AI boom
AI has buoyed the stock market and a struggling US economy but warning signs indicate a bubble that everyone will pay for when it bursts.
How Trump’s new H-1B fee will hurt Silicon Valley and AI startups
The Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications is threatening Silicon Valley’s ability to attract the world’s top talent.
America’s AI action plan aims to gut regulation and expand manufacturing
The Trump administration released America’s AI Action Plan, which proposes gutting regulations, expanding AI use, and building data centers.
AI is polluting truth in journalism. Here’s how to disrupt the misinformation feedback loop.
AI-enabled misinformation is not merely a failure of facts. Regulation can help slow the supply. But unless we address the demand side—the human hunger for stories that soothe or confirm—we will be fighting a shadow.
AI for good, with caveats: How a keynote speaker was censored during an international artificial intelligence summit
Q&A with Abeba Birhane on how she was censored during the AI for Good summit and how the industry can do better.
How the striking of a GOP regulatory ban will affect the global artificial intelligence race
The House just voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill without a moratorium that would ban states from enforcing AI regulations for 10 years.
Iran’s internet shutdown tells a larger story: Digital repression is on the rise
Like Iran, governments worldwide rely on internet shutdowns to suppress populations, rig elections and collectively punish their citizens.
What experts can learn by tracking AI harms
Experts can identify and address artificial intelligence's weak points using a database tracking the technology’s harms.
When it all comes crashing down: The aftermath of the AI boom
AI has buoyed the stock market and a struggling US economy but warning signs indicate a bubble that everyone will pay for when it bursts.
How Trump’s new H-1B fee will hurt Silicon Valley and AI startups
The Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications is threatening Silicon Valley’s ability to attract the world’s top talent.
America’s AI action plan aims to gut regulation and expand manufacturing
The Trump administration released America’s AI Action Plan, which proposes gutting regulations, expanding AI use, and building data centers.
AI is polluting truth in journalism. Here’s how to disrupt the misinformation feedback loop.
AI-enabled misinformation is not merely a failure of facts. Regulation can help slow the supply. But unless we address the demand side—the human hunger for stories that soothe or confirm—we will be fighting a shadow.
AI for good, with caveats: How a keynote speaker was censored during an international artificial intelligence summit
Q&A with Abeba Birhane on how she was censored during the AI for Good summit and how the industry can do better.
How the striking of a GOP regulatory ban will affect the global artificial intelligence race
The House just voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill without a moratorium that would ban states from enforcing AI regulations for 10 years.
Author Spotlight
Allison Stanger
The AI Raj: How tech giants are recolonizing power
Middlebury professor Allison Stanger explains how Big Tech CEOs became more powerful than some elected heads of state and why citizens should be concerned about their increasing ability to influence government policy. “The question facing democratic societies is whether they will escape this trap while they still can, or whether they will remain subject to the whims of unelected digital sovereigns.”
Video by Erik English
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
How AI and surveillance capitalism are undermining democracy
Brown University professor Suresh Venkatasubramanian warns that once you start collecting data, “you’re almost never going to stop.”
Video by Erik English
The AI Power Trip
Generously supported by
the Future of Life Institute
