Let's Build a Movement
A Cross-Partisan Call to Action
A group of concerned professionals in technology and media intend to build a movement to address tech authoritarianism and the anti-democratic application of Artificial Intelligence, which poses a massive danger to our future. Please read the letter below, and sign the petition by subscribing to the Coalition for Sanity newsletter (different from this one). Also please share your ideas in the comments: What can we do together that is most effective?
If you feel inspired to work on this project, please email coalitionforsanityproton.me@proton.me : Let us know how much time you want to donate each week, where you are in the world, and what skills you would love to contribute to this.
Dear Friends,
We are reaching out to you as peers who share a deep concern for the future of our society and the world we are building together. Many of you have spent your lives driven by a belief in progress, innovation, and human advancement. You have supported ideals of equity, freedom, and the open exchange of ideas.
Some of you now find yourselves, perhaps uneasily, aligning with forces that threaten those very values.
We share the disillusionment many of you feel with the stagnation, the bureaucracy, the often performative politics that seemed to prioritize appearances over outcomes. We are right to be frustrated. Yes, our government needed to change. But the current capitulation to Trump and Musk goes beyond a positive or helpful disruption. We confront an undemocratic effort to dismantle the very structures that enable open systems, free inquiry, and the stability necessary for innovation, threatening environmental and human health on a vast scale.
Let's be clear: The rapid consolidation of power we are witnessing in the first month of Trump's second term bears striking resemblances to the early stages of authoritarian regimes in history. This includes the erosion of legal checks, the purging of institutional safeguards, and the overt politicization of the civil service. Historians and political scientists, including those who have studied the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany, find many parallels. This is not alarmism. It is pattern recognition.
Through DOGE, we are seeing the harvesting of private data from Americans without their consent or any legislative process. In the future, this data can be weaponized to dox or intimidate individuals who dissent. We witness a shocking disregard for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. We confront a systematic undermining of the U.S. Constitution and a very severe threat to the continuity of our democratic system.
Now, some of you may be making a calculated bet on this shift: that in chaos, new opportunities arise; that unfettered markets and weakened regulations could accelerate technological breakthroughs. And in any case, the takeover is a done deal, and that it is too late to resist.
We strongly urge you to reconsider and remember the other side of that wager. Autocratic regimes do not nurture innovation or freedom. They consolidate power among a few, stifle dissent, and rule by fear. They erode the very freedoms that allow new ideas to thrive. As wealth is centralized, social services are eroded and protection for workers removed.
Unfortunately, today's rapid movement toward oligarchic and authoritarian control is also being integrated with advances in artificial intelligence. This is happening without any public oversight or Democratic process. Leaders in the AI field say we are only a few years away from Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which may eliminate many forms of work currently performed by humans. Our current trajectory leads to a cruel social reality where AI-driven automation replaces many millions of jobs while the resulting wealth accrues to an increasingly narrow slice of society.
We do not accept a future of mass displacement, fear-based rule, and concentrated power. We must find another way. This may require that a large portion of AI-generated productivity gains are used to support public goods like education, healthcare, and a universal basic income. As AI transforms our economy, the question is whether that transformation will serve the many or further empower the few who already benefit financially.
At this critical juncture, we must not be silent. We are facing the thorniest issues in human history, with multiplying existential risks. We need our best and brightest minds working together. We need you.
We appeal to your sense of responsibility and your concern for the future of humanity as well as your own communities and families. There is still time to change the direction to align with reason, compassion, and conscience. A path that does not require abandoning skepticism toward the old system but refuses to replace it with a regime that openly despises the rule of law.
The future is not predetermined. It is built, piece by piece, by all of us, when we stand together.
We are a generation of problem-solvers and system-builders. The decisions you make—where you invest your talent, your capital, your voice—will shape not only your personal fortunes but the trajectory of our society.
This is what we ask:
Join Our Coalition
We're building a cross-partisan network of tech-aware, concerned citizens committed to defending democratic institutions while advancing inclusive, systemic progress, and we want you to join us.
Immediate actions we invite you to take:
Subscribe to our newsletter to sign this public pledge and add your name to our growing community
Share this letter with your networks, including a personal note
Meet and talk with friends, neighbors, colleagues: work together to make sense of this historical moment and help people move from fear into action
Down the line, we may ask you for a one-time financial contribution or to commit to a monthly donation to fund further advocacy and educational initiatives
We're working with other coalitions and intend to build working groups addressing these issues. As this happens, we will invite you to join us.
There are moments when each one of us must face our fears and find our courage. Together, we can take a stand, pushing back against forces of hate, greed, and destruction that threaten to tear apart our world.
Together, we can define and build an alternative where progress, social protections, ecological resilience, and democratic values reinforce each other.
We look forward to working with you.
In solidarity,
Coalition for Sanity
I subscribed to them. But there are no names of the major players or organizers. That would be helpful, especially in this time of such scamming and trolling.
Very interesting idea. I'm all for brainstorming. One thought that occurs is coming up with a list of companies that will pledge to not use AI. We used this approach in some of our peace activism. Caveat: I’m not sure how effective it would be b/c companies are shying away from political statements and involvement these days. Just a thought. In fact, you could build it from both ends. Change.org or a similar platform could build a constituency of people who are pledging not to use AI. And then on the provider side, a list could be developed of companies that will not use AI for, say, customer service (at the very least.) Then just start matching the two. If enough people were involved and enough companies were involved, it could gain some momentum.