AI Now Institute

What AI Now Institute does

AI Now Institute is an independent, nonprofit research institute hosted at New York University that studies the social, political, and economic implications of artificial intelligence. Founded in 2016 by Kate Crawford and Meredith Whittaker and officially launched in 2017, the organization produces annual landscape reports (most recently 'Artificial Power: 2025 Landscape Report'), thematic research publications such as 'Uber for Nursing Part II' and 'Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026,' and policy toolkits including the North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit. Its work spans four core research domains — labor and automation, bias and inclusion, rights and liberties, and safety and critical infrastructure — and is distributed free of charge on ainowinstitute.org.

The institute's business model is grant-funded philanthropy rather than commercial sales; revenue is not publicly disclosed, and all research is offered as a public good. Funding has come from major foundations including the Hewlett Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The go-to-market motion is influence-led rather than sales-led: AI Now secures policy impact through government testimony, expert briefings, academic publishing, media coverage, and convening events such as its annual symposiums. Customer segments are policymakers and government bodies, civil society organizations, researchers and academics, and the general public — none of whom pay for the institute's outputs.

AI Now has no proprietary technology products. Its offering is a portfolio of research publications, policy briefs, symposiums, and policy toolkits. Leadership includes Co-Executive Directors Sarah Myers West and Amba Kak, Chief AI Scientist Dr. Heidy Khlaaf, and a small senior team. Recent activity indicates a deliberate expansion of scope into healthcare AI, data center governance, and global AI governance, accompanied by new partnerships with Aapti Institute, The Maybe, and continued engagement with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and NYU Law's Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law.

Name

AI Now Institute

Legal name

AI Now Institute

Website

https://ainowinstitute.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

AI Now Institute is an independent nonprofit research institute at New York University that produces policy research on AI's social implications. It serves policymakers, civil society, researchers, and the public via annual reports, policy briefs, symposia, and government testimony.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Policy Research

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Platforms (HDAAAMAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Regulatory Readiness & Audit Automation (e.g., EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001) (HDAAAMAE), Responsible AI, AI Governance & Compliance Services (BPAEAHAJ)

Keywords

• AI policy research
• AI governance briefs
• AI ethics reports
• Algorithmic accountability
• Public interest AI

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation Grants: AI Now Institute receives grants from foundations to support its research on AI safety, ethics, and governance. Recent grants include $10 million from the Hewlett Foundation as exploratory grants to support security of emerging technologies including AI.

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

AI Now Institute is an independent nonprofit research institute at New York University that produces and freely publishes interdisciplinary research on the social implications of artificial intelligence. Its core offerings are research publications (annual landscape reports such as 'Artificial Power' and thematic reports like 'Uber for Nursing Part II'), policy toolkits (such as the North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit), and convening events (annual Symposiums and AI Summit series), targeted at policymakers, civil society, and the general public.

Product overview

AI Now Institute is an independent research institute at New York University dedicated to understanding the social implications of artificial intelligence. Rather than a unified software product, its offering is a portfolio of research publications, policy reports, annual landscape reports, and convening events (symposiums). The core products include the annual 'Artificial Power' landscape reports, thematic research series such as 'Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026' and 'Uber for Nursing Part II,' policy tools like the Data Center Policy Toolkit, and annual symposium events. These publications address AI ethics, labor, bias, accountability, geopolitics, and governance across four core domains: labor and automation, bias and inclusion, rights and liberties, and safety and critical infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Research Publications and Policy Reports Portfolio of annual landscape reports, research papers, policy briefs, and essays analyzing the social, political, and economic implications of AI. Freely available to policymakers, civil society, and the general public.
• Annual Symposium Events Annual convenings bringing together experts from industry, academia, civil society, and government to discuss AI ethics, accountability, and social implications of AI technologies.
• Uber for Nursing Part II Research publication examining gig nursing platforms that use algorithmic management systems to enable nurses to bid against each other for wages, with deregulation efforts documented in nearly half of all US states since 2022.
• Artificial Power: 2025 Landscape Report Annual report mapping the current state of the AI market, interrogating the industry's key sources of power, and providing an actionable strategy to reclaim public agency over the future of AI.
• Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026 Series Collaborative essay and interview series with Aapti Institute and The Maybe addressing themes in AI and governance ahead of the 2026 India AI Impact Summit, including sovereignty, multilateralism, linguistic diversity, open source, accountability, democratization, AI for Good, Frugal AI, climate, and human capital.
• North Star Data Center Policy Toolkit Policy toolkit providing state and local policy interventions to address AI data center expansion, including guidance on regulatory oversight.

Quantifiable outcome

• Co-Executive Director Sarah Myers West testified before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on AI risks to the economy
• +4 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Aapti InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 January 2026AI Now Institute partnered with Aapti Institute to produce the 'Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026' series, bringing together advocates, builders, and thinkers from around the world to discuss AI governance and impact.
• The MaybecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 January 2026AI Now Institute partnered with The Maybe to produce the 'Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026' series, a collaboration focused on alternative framings of AI impact.
• NYU Law's Center on Race, Inequality, and the LawmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 June 2018AI Now partnered with NYU Law's Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law to host the Litigating Algorithms Workshop, examining litigation strategies for challenging government use of algorithmic decision systems.
• Electronic Frontier FoundationmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 June 2018AI Now partnered with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to host the Litigating Algorithms Workshop examining current courtroom litigation where the use of algorithms by government was central to rights and liberties.

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI): Stanford HAI is a university-hosted AI policy and research institute that publishes major reports and influences US AI policy. It shares AI Now's orientation toward AI governance and social implications, though with a more industry-engaged posture.
• Future of Life Institute: FLI is a nonprofit focused on AI safety, governance, and existential-risk policy with high-profile outreach to governments and international bodies. It overlaps directly with AI Now's policy advocacy and grants-driven nonprofit model.
• Data & Society: Data & Society is an independent research institute studying the social implications of data-centric technologies. It is one of the closest direct comparables to AI Now in terms of research output, funding model, and policy orientation.
• Partnership on AI: Partnership on AI is a multistakeholder nonprofit producing research and guidance on responsible AI. It overlaps with AI Now in governance research but operates with a more industry-collaborative stance.
• Center for AI Safety (CAIS): CAIS is a research-focused nonprofit prioritizing AI safety and existential risk. It is comparable to AI Now as a grant-funded AI policy/safety research organization producing influential publications.
• New America Open Technology Institute: OTI is a Washington-based think tank focused on technology policy, accountability, and civil liberties. It shares AI Now's policy-advocacy posture and produces reports and testimony on AI governance.

Regional players

• Ada Lovelace Institute: Ada Lovelace Institute is a UK-based independent research body examining AI and data-driven technologies through a public-interest lens. It is highly comparable in mission and methodology but operates primarily outside the US.

Broad incumbents

• Brookings Institution: Brookings is a large, established policy think tank with substantial AI governance research output. It overlaps with AI Now's policy influence goals but operates at significantly greater scale and across a much broader research agenda.
• RAND Corporation: RAND is a major policy research institution that produces research on AI safety, security, and governance. It was a co-recipient of the $10M Hewlett exploratory grant alongside AI Now, signaling direct institutional competition for similar funding and policy influence.
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Carnegie is an established international affairs think tank with technology-policy programming. It overlaps with AI Now on AI governance, geopolitics, and multilateral engagement, and is also a co-recipient of the Hewlett $10M grant.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ainowinstitute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ai-now-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about AI Now Institute