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 Artificial Intelligence: The Narrative Structure Supporting the AI Bubble
3. A Sure Bet: How Tech Companies Manipulate the AI Market
4. Checking the Record: How AI Continuously 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 Cannot Achieve It)

Document Introduction

This report, published 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 and 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 computing resources, data, and talent, leading to excessive concentration of power and obscuring the fundamental flaws and market bubbles inherent in the technology itself.

The report is rigorously structured, first deconstructing the four major false myths supporting 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 US-China AI arms race to evade regulation, and reframing regulation as an obstacle to innovation. Subsequently, the report delves into an analysis of how tech giants ensure their position as a "sure bet" 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 sectors such as education, healthcare, agriculture, immigration enforcement, and government services, the report clearly demonstrates that the actual deployment of AI often exacerbates inequality, erodes professional expertise, enforces fiscal austerity policies, and is frequently coercive, infringing upon civil rights and due process.

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