Aims of the Network

Our network offers a space for those who want to research, study, and make visible (and possible) ways that AI is, and can be, challenged. It is open to all - academics, policy researchers, and activists interested in ways that AI is contested - see details below on how to sign up.

At our founding conference in July 2025 we launched the network in order to bring together those interested in different ways in which AI is being, and can be, contested. In the spirit of our recent proposal for ways to be ‘anti-AI’, we sought to open up a discussion for those concerned about the harms that AI might pose - be it ecological harm, heightened exploitation, racialised extractivism, rule by oligarchs, and/or the further degradation of what remains of our “democracies”.

As we noted at the time, we see widespread concern about how AI might bring about these harms - but we need to think more about how AI might be contested. We need to reject the ‘inevitability narrative’ - that there is no alternative to AI as we are coming to know it.

The aim of our network is to continue these goals - offering a space in which those interested in the contestation of AI can join and share insights, knowledge, updates, and find ways to collaborate around a broad interest in the contestation of AI. This includes campaigns, events, talks, research initiatives, organising actions, and generally facilitating discussions regarding how the introduction of AI is being subjected to challenges and public opposition of different types.