Don’t Wait for Washington

On Tuesday, September 15, the Future of Life Institute (“FLI”) hosted the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, DC. About 500 people from academia, industry, and politics gathered to discuss the increasingly urgent question of how artificial intelligence is being built, and for whom. I was there representing User Cooperative, which was, I believe, the only user-owned tech company in the room.

Though the event was about AI, I heard it as a reaffirmation of something we’ve known for a long time: global dissatisfaction with the tech status quo and the continued inability of our leaders and regulators to do anything about it.

Political figures from across the spectrum, notably Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders, spoke in surprisingly similar terms about the problems the global public faces with rapidly advancing AI systems, including the annihilation of our jobs and the subordination of humanity to the will of those who own and control the most powerful tech companies.

But the speakers diverged on their remedies, which included nationalizing domestic AI companies, pausing domestic AI development so regulators can catch up, and neutralizing China as an AI competitor by cutting off its supply of inputs for AI development.

That divergence and Congress’ track record on tech, which the speakers admitted is poor, are reason enough to expect little action from leaders and regulators.

Each remedy was offered in the spirit of putting tech power and profits into the people’s hands. But each routes that power and those profits through the government, which becomes a powerful intermediary between tech systems and the people. And each requires waiting for the government to act.

User Co-op isn’t waiting. We already put tech power and profits directly into the people’s hands as a 100% user-owned and -governed tech company. Any money we make goes back to our users in proportion to their use. And our most important business decisions are made democratically by our users on a one user, one vote basis. No government stands in the middle. We start as a web browser company, but our roadmap includes other powerful and profitable tech products, like AI.

I’m honored that FLI invited me and funded my trip. It was a gathering of passionate people and organizations, all eager to make sure the tech that shapes our lives truly works for us, not the other way around. User Co-op made a lot of friends this week. More to come on that.

Coverage of and agenda for the event:

CBS News’ article ›
Forbes’ full event video ›
NBC’s video summary of event ›
NPR’s article ›
FLI’s event agenda with all speakers ›

Matt

September 18, 2026
Matt Martensen
Founder/organizer