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Resistance Against AI Is Not Futile. A List Is A Good Start

The AI Resist List project wants to challenge the current narrative of the AI industry. And offers action points for everyone. A brief commentary.

Wolfgang Hauptfleisch

4 min read·<br>Just now

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The general unhappiness with the AI industry has been growing for some time now. From copyright to AI slop, from privacy intrusion to data centres, people have started to express the need to resist the trajectory of the AI industry and its attempts to intrude every part of our lives. Last week, several journalists and researchers launched the “AI Resist List”.<br>From the AI Empire to its possible downfall<br>Karen Hao, journalist and author of “Empire of AI”, who launched the project together with other journalists and AI researchers, describes the project’s aim as to “show all the different creative ways that anyone can actually participate in applying pressure to the AI industry” (Democracy Now 2026).<br>According to Hao, the list is inspired by “Choose Democracy’s Resist List against authoritarianism” and “organizes resistance movements based on how they pressure different ‘Pillars of Support’ that uphold and perpetuate the empires”. (Hao, LinkedIn 2026)<br>We call the companies leading this form of AI development “empires”. Under the guise of a civilizing mission to “benefit all of humanity”, they use large-scale AI development as cover to consolidate resources, destroy ecosystems, centralize information, hollow out institutions, and gain paramount economic and political power. (AI Resist List)

The “List” consists of two elements: A list of action points of what everyone is can do. Secondly, the “List” attempts to map some of the resources available. The action points reach from “calling out the hype” over “take back our data” to workers rights. The action points on their own are not new, but it is good to see them bundled like this.<br>The second element is to list resources that take a critical view of the current AI industry, and includes both organisations that resits AI data centres locally and organisations in the global south. Maybe that element of the list resonates especially with me because it reminds me of the early days of “internet activism”, when “mapping resources” was always the first order of the day.<br>It doesn’t have to be this way.<br>As the project points out, “nothing about the current trajectory of AI is inevitable”:<br>It doesn’t have to be this way. As AI researchers, journalists, and critical scholars, we have built, documented, and imagined radical alternatives that do precisely the opposite: center community, celebrate human agency, honor local context and history, and rejuvenate the planet. (AI Resist List)

In the last chapter of her book, titled “How the Empire falls”, Hao argues that the AI empire will crumble when citizens resist across three areas: Knowledge, resources and influence, the latter meaning challenging the narrative of the AI industry that artificial intelligence in its current form is inevitable and, in the long term, beneficial to mankind.<br>Get Wolfgang Hauptfleisch’s stories in your inbox

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Destroying the narrative is the first crucial step, but it goes hand in hand with the reclaiming of personal rights to privacy and the common good.<br>A better future is already being built. Countless alternatives exist, created by communities, organizations, and individuals around the world. (AI Resist List)

That is why the focus on digital self-determination as a central motive from the list is so important because it reaches beyond mere “AI”.<br>Towards a movement?<br>For this to happen, resistance must become a movement — one that doesn’t yet exist. For the last three years, critical voices have been drowned out by the industry’s relentless propaganda, eagerly amplified by much of the tech media. And there is still no common language to articulate criticism, describe what’s wrong, or agree on what to do about it. The action points offer a helpful starting point.<br>Such a movement can’t focus on a single technology. It must take on the industry as a whole — and inevitably question capitalism in its current form. Such a movement, of course, can’t be just about a specific technology, it needs to be about the industry as the whole, and inevitably question capitalism in its current form.<br>A movement also needs visibility into what others are doing. That’s why the effort to “map out” resources and projects is essential.<br>Conslusion<br>In a world in which tech journalists have mostly abandoned critical thinking and influencers repeating (and...