This program comes at a moment where AI tools made by Chinese actors with connections to the CCP are some of the most performant in the world, displacing tools made by corporations and associations inside liberal democracies. This is also a time when open-source AI tools have never been more powerful, and the opportunities to use AI tools to strengthen the work that dissidents do inside authoritarian regimes have never been greater.

There are many existing “AI ethics” working groups, associations, nonprofits, industry papers, and centers, but zero have a focus on authoritarian regimes. Many are bought off by the Chinese government and refuse to criticize the CCP’s role in using AI for repression in the Uyghur region, in Tibet, in Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Others are influenced by the Saudi or Russian governments and hold their tongue on too many issues. Others still are very close to the US government and must mind a different set of political alliances. HRF’s program is fully independent.

Critically, this program is not oriented toward preventing “superintelligence” risk or concerned with an AGI becoming catastrophically powerful. While those might be worthy efforts, this program is entirely focused on tracking and challenging how authoritarian regimes are using AI and helping spark the proliferation of open-source tools that can empower and liberate individuals.