Stuart Russell
Professor of computer science · UC Berkeley · CHAI
Argues that the standard model of AI, optimizing a fixed objective, is the wrong shape, and proposes machines that remain uncertain about human preference.
Voices
Who to read in each topic
Not a ranking. People and groups whose public work helps you go deeper. Save a piece to review later, or open it in a new tab.
The rules, forums, and public bodies trying to keep pace.Rights, remedies, and what the law still cannot see.Boards, buyers, workforce, and the institutions that must say yes or no.Compute, models, nations, and who holds the future in their hands.Whether capable systems can be steered toward what we actually intend.Catastrophe, loss of control, and the disagreement about how to think about either.
Kate Crawford
Research professor · USC Annenberg
Maps AI as an extractive industry: minerals, energy, labour, and classification. Atlas of AI is the book most groups can start with.
Arvind Narayanan
Professor of computer science · Princeton
Cuts through AI marketing. AI Snake Oil is a calm test of which claims are real, which are premature, and which cannot work as sold.
Yoshua Bengio
Scientific director · Mila · LawZero
A founder of modern deep learning who now spends his public voice on catastrophic risk, agentic systems, and international scientific advice.
Meredith Whittaker
President · Signal
Connects concentration of compute, surveillance business models, and labour. A voice for groups asking who owns the stack.
Daron Acemoglu
Economist · MIT
Power and Progress asks whether a technical gain becomes a shared one. A good first book for labour, inequality, and who captures the surplus.
Virginia Eubanks
Writer and teacher
Automating Inequality follows ranking systems in welfare, homelessness, and child protection. Read this before a civic group talks about 'efficiency.'
Gary Marcus
Scientist and writer
A persistent public critic of overclaiming. Useful when a group needs permission to ask 'does this actually work?'
Inioluwa Deborah Raji
Researcher · UC Berkeley
Wrote the case for closing the AI accountability gap: documentation, audit, and the right to know what a system was tested on.
NIST AI Risk Management Framework
Voluntary framework · U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
The document many institutions already have to map against. Not a voice in the personal sense, but the shared language of governance conversations.
International Committee of the Red Cross
Humanitarian policy on AI
Writes from international humanitarian law, not from product. Essential when a conversation touches conflict, weapons, or civilian protection.
Alondra Nelson
Former deputy director, White House OSTP · Institute for Advanced Study
Shepherded the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. A civic starting point for rights language without requiring a legal training.
Geoffrey Hinton
Scientist
A founder of deep learning who left a major lab to speak in public about loss of control. One interview is enough for a first gathering on long-term risk.
Future of Life Institute
Research and advocacy
Holds open letters, policy work, and explainers on catastrophic risk. Use alongside, not instead of, voices from justice and labour.
Woodrow Hartzog
Professor of law · Boston University
Privacy's Blueprint argues that design, not only notice, is where privacy lives. Useful for groups writing a policy rather than a feeling.