Ultimately, this is the meaning of corporate capture in this context. It is a description of who possesses the capabilities that decide outcomes in markets, elections, conflicts, and daily life. The power to shape the next decade is, to a degree without historical precedent, held by entities that were not elected, that cannot be voted out, that are not bound by any treaties, and that are answerable, in the last analysis, to shareholders whose interests are not the interests of the human species.

Our argument here that the civil rights framework cannot bear the full weight of AI accountability — that organizing AI governance primarily around protected class discrimination leaves an enormous portion of the harm unaddressed, and leaves the people harmed by it without adequate legal recourse.