Tech companies monetize your attention

The world's biggest tech firms built their strategies around monetizing consumer attention while simultaneously destroying the revenue models of news media.

Meet Maria Ressa, Nobel laureate

Filipino American journalist Maria Ressa won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for safeguarding freedom of expression and now co-chairs the UN's Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.

Three phases of AI hacked us

A decade ago, social media used machine learning for micro-targeting. Around 2022, large language models created AI slop. Now, agentic AI systems ask permission to act on your behalf.

Social media changed our biology

Tech platforms hacked our attention spans and intimacy. Now AI agents are hacking agency itself, literally giving machines permission to act for you.

“These three stages hacked our biology.”

The harms started a decade ago

Researchers documented AI harms ten years ago, but very little has been done to protect people. The problem is getting worse, not better.

“It's been a decade. It's getting worse.”

Two dictators target you

The state and tech companies are the two dictators. You are the target in both the physical and virtual worlds, with no country able to solve this alone.

UN General Assembly takes action

The UN General Assembly created an independent international panel on AI and the Global Dialogue for AI Governance, bypassing the Security Council's gridlock.

36 countries found consensus

A UN panel with experts from 36 countries completed a preliminary report in six weeks, finding agreement on AI principles despite tensions between people and Big Tech.

The AI race is narrative warfare

The claim that the US must develop AI before China is a false narrative. Journalists must call this lie what it is and reject the zero-sum framing.

“First, it's narrative warfare. Don't believe it.”

Ressa paid the price for truth

For calling out lies by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Ressa received 11 arrest warrants over 14 months and spent nearly a decade fighting 10 charges in court.

Tech changes how you vote

Social media algorithms change the way you feel, which changes how you see the world and how you vote. This is why 74 percent of the world is now under authoritarian rule.

Three cascading crises unfold

The crisis of trust (lies spread six times faster than facts), the crisis of order (dismantling of institutions), and the crisis of accountability create cascading failures.

Without facts, there's no reality

A lie repeated a million times becomes a fact in the information ecosystem. But reality always brings you back when you walk out the door.

“A lie repeated a million times becomes a fact.”

Governments are losing power daily

Each day governments fail to regulate tech, they lose more power. The tech coup has happened in plain sight, and it is time to act.

Journalists need your support now

News organizations are choking on lost revenue as AI scrapes their content without driving traffic. Global advertising revenue for journalism has dropped 75 to 80 percent.

Most of the internet is now AI

Fifty-three percent of internet traffic is non-human AI slop. Only 25 percent of the web is open; 75 percent is controlled by social media and AI platforms.

Information integrity is everything

If we win the battle for information integrity, we win everything. If we lose it, we lose democracy, gender equality, climate action, and health.

“Information integrity is the mother of all battles.”

This is your moment to act

This is not a time just to vote. It is a time to stand up to dictators. You have tremendous power because you are the target. Join the fight now.

“This is a time and place to stand up to a dictator.”