Our Strategy
We’re working toward a future where people come before technology. We do this by building a rigorous evidence base of technology’s impacts on society, and designing policy interventions to foreground that evidence for policymakers.
Our Goals
We actively explore how our four goals work together to shift power — away from the tech industry, tech oligarchs, and an increasingly uncertain political environment, and toward communities, movements, and institutions who see ungoverned technology as a threat to their rights, freedoms, and livelihoods. We work toward a future where technology is shaped by democratic values, human rights, and the public interest — a future that upholds human creativity, dignity and opportunity.
Foundational Research
Integrate sociotechnical research into structural fights for equity.
Policy Blueprints
Ground policy in research and enable interdisciplinary coalitions.
Counternarratives
Tell compelling stories that challenge technocentric hype and point to new ways to imagine our shared futures.
Network Power
Engage a diverse, committed community to build collective power for tech justice and drive long-term change.
Our Thematic Priorities
Democracy in the Age of AI
We seek to understand how information systems, automation, and AI contribute to the tensions between democratic theory and practice. Our research explores how AI is impacting the knowledge and institutions that are essential to functional democracy, including journalism, academia, scientific inquiry, and government itself.
Worker Power and Collective Rights
Our research examines how algorithmic technologies are impacting the quality of jobs, and workers’ rights and privacy. We map the conditions for redistributing power and support interdisciplinary coalitions working toward collective rights and democratic governance.
Technology’s Impacts on People and Climate
Our research explores how communities negotiate the relationship between technology and climate, with a focus on the needs and perspectives of impacted groups. We aim to provide evidence to inform policies on AI infrastructure, and highlight the tensions between community-driven climate solutions and industry-led approaches.
Equity as an Organizing Principle
Equity shapes every aspect of our work, from internal policies and research methodologies to how we engage with research participants, communities, and partners. Our research and policy work foreground questions about power and justice, centering people who are at the margins.