The Center for Humane Technology, the online safety group cofounded by former Google product manager Tristan Harris and featured in the hit documentary The Social Dilemma, is laying off about half of its 16 non-founder employees, ex-staffers tell WIRED. The organization is ending its policy research and litigation work to focus instead on what it calls “founder-led” projects.
The nine departures, which include executive director Julie Guirado and senior director of strategy Camille Carlton, arrive shortly after the center scored a series of major courtroom victories against social media companies. The lawsuits drew on its research alleging that the platforms were deliberately designed to keep kids glued to their screens.
But amid that success, internal debates had been brewing for years over the organization’s direction, according to 16 former workers, most of whom spoke with WIRED earlier this year on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional repercussions.
CHT’s board ultimately determined that trying to operate both as an advocacy group fronted by Harris and a think tank producing policy papers had stretched it too thin. Moving forward, the organization will focus on initiatives with its founders at the forefront, including “public education, targeted briefings, and private coordination,” building upon their success “reaching broad audiences and engaging influential decisionmakers,” the board announced last week.
Functions such as assisting in litigation and evaluating AI tools would be eliminated, the board added, without specifying an exact number of layoffs.
“This moment of accelerated AI risk demands we focus on one strategy, and we have chosen to focus on what we have always done best so that we can meet the moment,” board chair Premal Shah said in a statement to WIRED.
In recent years, Harris has joined a growing chorus of voices sounding the alarm about the risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence, warning of a potential “AI takeover” if the software evades control. “We have to act right now before it’s too late,” he told NBC News last month.
The center encouraged people to sign a major petition to pause AI development and helped organize a hearing in Congress about the dangers of chatbots. It also advised on lawsuits and investigations probing AI labs for their design choices, including an ongoing case filed against OpenAI by parents of a teenager who died by suicide after interacting with ChatGPT. Harris also starred in a documentary released on Netflix last month, The AI Doc, which urges viewers to demand that Congress intervene to protect the public from the technology’s risks.