Draft People's Charter on AI

The Impacts of AI

The impacts of AI must be understood across the entire chain of its development and deployment - from the acquisition of data and the production of AI technologies to their commercialisation and eventual use in society. At every stage, serious concerns arise regarding the concentration of power, appropriation of collective knowledge, exploitation of labour, ecological destruction, growing inequalities, and the undermining of human autonomy and democratic values.

Stage 1. Acquisition of data and the privatisation of knowledge

The acquisition and appropriation of data by technology corporations raise serious concerns about data theft, the destruction and appropriation of indigenous knowledge, and the monopolisation of the knowledge humanity has collectively created. Through their ownership and control of data and the infrastructure required to process it, a handful of Big Tech companies turn collectively generated human knowledge into a private commodity, effectively selling it back to the very people and communities that created it, while extracting unprecedented profits.

Stage 2. Processing of data and the production of AI technologies

The development and production of AI technologies entail enormous material, environmental, and human costs. These include ecological destruction and the worsening climate crisis, driven by the carbon footprint of data centres and computing infrastructure, the extraction and processing of heavy and rare-earth metals required for semiconductor chips, and the excessive consumption of energy and water, alongside soil and environmental pollution. This process also involves the exploitation and abuse of technology workers and the growing monopolisation of AI technologies, computing infrastructure, and associated resources by a handful of powerful corporations.

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Understanding this context, we, the signatories of the People's Charter on AI recognise that:

While artificial intelligence (AI) may be used either for the benefit or to the detriment of humanity and the natural environment, the technology is currently provoking serious harms to society - the costs of which are being borne by communities, and ecosystems. The countries and communities who are most adversely affected are often those most marginalised.

Critical engagement with the technology begins with an understanding that human knowledge - collectively created over generations - is being dominated through AI by a handful of big tech companies with control over how, when, and for whose benefit our knowledge is used. This theft has been conducted with the complicity of those governments who have invited the billionaires at the head of these companies to a seat at the governmental table.

Existing policies and public resources, are employed to enable this handful of dominant players to own and control the computing infrastructure and hardware required to develop and deploy the technology. This concentration of power stifles the healthy diversity of actors (including public initiatives) the industry needs to advance the technology, to overcome the challenges it poses to the sustainability of the planet and to improve its inclusivity and relevance for all communities.

The development and use of AI must be governed through democratic and accountable processes involving both relevant experts and representatives of the people. Decisions should prioritize the long-term interests and well-being of humanity over short-term commercial interests or private profit.

We reject the narrative that AI—and artificial general intelligence (AGI) in particular—can serve as a panacea for the world’s most pressing and complex challenges, including health inequities, hunger, poverty, inequality, and the environmental and climate crisis. Without addressing their underlying social, economic, and political causes, technology alone cannot resolve these crises. AI may contribute to solutions, but it cannot substitute for the structural changes needed to address their root causes.

We are driven by the desire to reclaim ownership of science and technology as a collective human achievement and ensure that the knowledge and technologies created by humanity serve people and humanity as a whole. We support human flourishing, the sovereignty of nations, the wise stewardship of the Earth, and an end to imperialist wars. AI in its current form represents a threat to all of these.

We recognise that if we allow the current trajectory of AI to carry on unchecked, we will be abdicating our individual and collective responsibilities to humanity and the Earth. Current developments in AI are working in favour of the hyper-productivity of corporations over humanness (human values, ethics, morality, agency, creativity, and thriving); of super-profits for the few, and the misery of unemployment for the many, without enough material and intellectual benefits for the majority. The cost is too high.

While industry insiders warn us about supposed existential threats posed by AI that is beyond human control, we are more concerned about the more immediate and current harms it has presented:

1. Militarisation and Imperialist domination
2. Undermining civic freedoms and human rights
3. Labour displacement and growing inequality
4. Unequal access to knowledge and technology
5. Undermining education and degrading human intellectual capacities
6. Bias, discrimination, and manipulation of information
7. Social isolation and mental health.

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1. Militarisation and imperialist domination: The use of AI by military-industrial complexes and imperialist powers to develop autonomous weapons systems capable of operating without meaningful human intervention, oversight, or decision-making. Such technologies also expand surveillance capabilities, facilitate genocide and colonial domination, and reinforce imperialist power structures.
2. Undermining civic freedoms and human rights: The deployment of AI for drones, mass surveillance, social control, and the suppression of dissent, shrinking civic space, restricting democratic freedoms, and enabling violations of fundamental human rights.
3. Labour displacement and growing inequality: The technology is built on extractive labour policies - from the exploitation of artisanal mine workers risking their lives to mine for the critical minerals that power the chips; to the hardships experienced by content moderators and data labellers who work in adverse conditions. use of AI to replace workers on a large scale across industries and production systems, leading to widespread job losses, unemployment, weakened labour rights, and widening social and economic inequalities.
4. Unequal access to knowledge and technology: The monopolisation and privatisation of knowledge (and AI technologies) restrict access for economically disadvantaged communities, deepening existing inequalities and leaving large sections of society further marginalised. Knowledge and its benefits should be accessible to everyone, without economic or other barriers.
5. Undermining education and degrading human intellectual capacities: Over-dependence of education-system on AI and the outsourcing of cognitive processes threaten the development of critical thinking, analytical and creative abilities, independent judgement, questioning and inquiry, and creative problem-solving. More fundamentally, they risk undermining the cultivation of informed, sensitive, and socially responsible individuals, equipped with a logical and scientific outlook and the ability and willingness to critically engage with and challenge injustice in society. They also weaken the spirit of collaboration, social engagement, and community-building—the very foundations of meaningful education, collective learning, and knowledge creation.
6. Bias, discrimination, and manipulation of information: AI can reproduce, amplify, and perpetuate existing biases and discriminatory practices, while enabling the widespread dissemination of misinformation and disinformation. These can be weaponised to advance corporate interests and imperialist agendas, legitimise existing structures of power and domination, and perpetuate the exploitation, marginalisation, and dispossession of ordinary people and vulnerable communities.
7. Social isolation and mental health: The increasing substitution of human-to-human interactions with AI-mediated interactions, coupled with growing socioeconomic insecurity and uncertainty, risks deepening social isolation, weakening human relationships and community bonds, and contributing to a wider mental health crisis.

Ultimately, the impacts of AI are shaped not by technology alone, but by the structures of ownership, control, power, and economic and political interests that govern its development and deployment. Addressing these concerns requires placing AI under democratic, accountable, and socially responsible governance, guided by the interests of people and the planet rather than the pursuit of private profit and the concentration of power. 

We respond by demanding a call to action

• An immediate halt to using AI for military purposes, surveillance or oppression. The deployment and expansion of AI infrastructure must be subject to environmental impact assessments, linked to transparent resource accounting, and accompanied by regulation proportionate to its ecological and climate footprint. This includes the commissioning of new data centres.
• The enforcement of fair labour practices and protections afforded to all workers in the tech industry which includes: real opportunities for career progression; substantial psycho-social support and trauma councelling; and a recognition that these constitute basic human rights protections.
• A global body to develop regulatory oversight with capacity to investigate the negative effects of AI, empowered to impose mitigating measures to avoid inequality, discrimination and social exclusion and to hold companies accountable for harms that emerge.
• Quality education for all is a human right and therefore we demand that the core values of literacy and numeracy, critical thinking must be protected.
• A people-centred ethical code to guide further research and development, in pursuit of benefit for all living things and the earth.
• A statement of solidarity with BDS.
• A demand on Pax Silica and A demand for data sovreignity
• A demand on the extrication of Palantir from civilian databases
• A demand for open weight open source models and the demand for open science

We recognise that, if we stand together, this vision is possible. We want to see AI used wisely and responsibly, within agreed and enforceable guidelines. We will not shirk from our collective responsibility. The future of the world is in our hands.