As an ordinary internet user, I am skeptical about AI. My colleagues and I have reported on several harmful aspects of the technology in the US: threats to democracy, its impact on the environment, mental health, the workforce, military intervention—the list goes on.

While researching the gaps in conversations around enforceable government regulation of AI startups, both big and small, eager to innovate and launch new products, I came across AI researchers, policy experts, and even “ordinary internet users” like me trying to reimagine how the industry could work. If AI is unstoppable, can we build it in a way where the public has more of a say in how the technology is made, used, and who it benefits?

To answer these questions, I spoke with B Cavello, the director of emerging technologies at the Aspen Institute. Cavello wants to make sure that ordinary users like you and me have some say in how this powerful technology is developed and regulated. I talked to Cavello about the gap between the recent proposals among tech executives and lawmakers to give Americans financial ownership stakes in major AI companies and what actually ensuring public safety could look like.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

I’ve heard a lot of coverage on proposals of public ownership of AI from folks like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Are there other prominent proposals being discussed?

Ownership is complicated. I’m a big proponent of the movement for public AI. Public AI is open source, centering public access, accountability, and sustainable public goods. That means making sure that not only do people have free access to things, but also access to build models in their own local context.

When we say accountability, we don’t just mean regulation on harms we’re trying to prevent. We also mean the capabilities that we want to get built in the world. When we talk about AI leading to a new age of human flourishing, we often aren’t talking about the basics, and that’s an........

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