About
About Humans in Control
Humans in Control is a nonpartisan grassroots movement of parents, workers, veterans, and neighbors fighting to keep people – not a handful of AI companies – in charge of our future.
Read Our Story↓AI companies have the lobbyists. We have parents, workers, and neighbors – the people politicians actually answer to – organizing in every state for commonsense AI safeguards.
Our Story
How We Started
In 2023, the people building the most powerful AI systems signed a statement saying their technology could cause human extinction. They told Congress the work was too dangerous to leave to them alone.
“Regulation of AI is essential.”
Sam Altman, to the US Senate, May 2023
Sam Altman
CEO, OpenAI · Senate testimony, 2023 · C-SPAN
By 2025, the same companies were spending hundreds of millions to block the rules they had asked for. Their tools were generating fake nude images of high school girls. Their products were eliminating jobs their own CEOs said wouldn't come back. Their safety researchers were quitting and warning the public that the companies were moving too fast to catch problems.
“I am nervous about standards being set too early.”
Sam Altman, to the US Senate, May 2025
Sam Altman
CEO, OpenAI · Senate Commerce Committee, May 2025 · C-SPAN
Vael Gates
Executive Director & Founder
Our founder has spent almost a decade concerned with advanced AI risk and how to make AI go well. Vael heard researchers describe AI systems already manipulating kids, replacing workers, and generating abuse material. Meanwhile, the companies raced to build powerful AI systems their own CEOs had called a threat to humanity. These weren't failures – they were side effects of rushing to be first.
Vael Gates
Executive Director & Founder
Who was organizing everyday Americans to push back? Almost nobody. So Vael left to start Humans in Control.
The AI companies won't hold themselves accountable. But we still get a say in how this goes. AI can still be built to help people instead of replace them – if enough of us demand it.
That's why Humans in Control exists: to make sure our politicians know that Americans want humans in control.
Public Support
This is common sense.
88%
want a guaranteed off switch for the most powerful AI.
D
88%
R
90%
I
87%
AIPI · Feb 2026
81%
reject letting AI companies write their own rules.
D
82%
R
81%
I
79%
AIPI · Feb 2026
73%
support a federal law requiring AI safety testing.
D
74%
R
73%
I
73%
AIPI · Feb 2026
Source: AI Policy Institute Senate wave, n=3,969
FAQ
Common questions
We're pro-human. We use AI every day, and we believe it could be one of the most important technologies of our lifetimes – helping us cure diseases, learn faster, and free up time for the people and work we love.
But Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind have all said – on the record – that they can't fully control what they're building. They've asked Congress for safeguards. They've also spent hundreds of millions to make sure those safeguards haven't been turned into law.
We're for AI built to the same kinds of safety standards we already require for cars, medicine, and food – and for companies being held accountable when their products hurt people. And the standards have to grow as the technology does. When AI can out-hack the tools our own government depends on, we can't let the companies write their own rules.
Humans in Control is a US-based organization, and our organizing work happens here.
Many of the most powerful AI companies – OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, and xAI – are American. These companies write their own rules, and the world is starting to rely on their AI. Holding them accountable in the US means safer AI across the world.
If you're outside the US, there's a place for you here too. You can donate, share what we publish, take action online, and use our resources to start a movement where you live. Keeping humans in control of AI will take people everywhere.
No. You can't hold someone accountable while cashing their checks. So we don't take money from the biggest AI companies – the ones we're working to make safe – or from the people who run them. Below is our full gift-acceptance policy.
Gift Acceptance Restriction
Humans in Control does not accept gifts, grants, sponsorships, in-kind contributions, or other financial support from Frontier AI Companies, or from any person who currently serves as a founder, co-founder, or C-suite officer of a Frontier AI Company.
A Frontier AI Company is a company or lab that develops, trains, or deploys frontier general-purpose AI models or systems as a substantial business activity. This includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, xAI, and substantially similar entities.
This restriction also applies to gifts made through intermediaries, including donor-advised funds, foundations, family offices, employers, investment vehicles, or other entities, where the underlying source is known or reasonably believed to be a Frontier AI Company or a person who currently serves as a founder, co-founder, or C-suite officer of a Frontier AI Company.
Join Us
8 in 10 Americans want accountability for AI companies.
We're building the movement to make it happen.
Count Me In
Everyone is welcome. No experience needed.
