From Invisible to Involved

🧩 Quick Summary

This report pushes for an equity-first approach to AI governance in the United States, focusing on frontline communities often ignored in policy debates. It proposes a new framework centered on three dimensions: equitable participation, institutional accountability, and just outcomes.

📘 What’s Covered

Critique of Current AI Governance: Argues that many policy processes are opaque, exclusionary, and overly focused on elite technical expertise.
Framework for Equity-Centered Governance: Proposes participatory governance grounded in community self-determination, transparency, and power-sharing.
Tools and Levers: Maps how laws, policies, institutions, and community organizing can be leveraged to shape more just AI systems.
Case Studies & Lessons: Draws from environmental justice, disability rights, and labor movements to guide AI governance design.
Policy Recommendations: Includes actionable steps such as resourcing affected communities, enforcing accountability mechanisms, and embedding racial and economic justice into rulemaking.

💡 Why it matters?

This is one of the most comprehensive calls to center social power—not just technological risk—in AI governance. It redirects the conversation from speculative future harms to present-day injustices and shows how public power can and should be mobilized to govern AI in the public interest.

🚫 What’s Missing

The framework is U.S.-centric, with limited engagement with global governance dynamics.
Less detail on implementation pathways within constrained political or institutional contexts.
Doesn’t fully address tensions between local autonomy and national AI coordination efforts.