Americans for Responsible Innovation

Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest for emerging technologies, with a primary focus on artificial intelligence. The organization was co-founded in 2023 by Brad Carson, a former U.S. Congressman and former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and Eric Gastfriend, a tech entrepreneur and former CEO of DynamiCare Health. ARI publicly launched in early 2024. ARI operates on a bipartisan basis, working with legislators and officials across the political spectrum. To preserve its independence as a public interest organization, ARI does not accept funding from for-profit corporations or non-U.S. sources. Its funders include Inclusive Abundance Action, Omidyar Network, Coefficient Giving, and individual donors including its co-founders. ARI is recommended for giving by Founders Pledge. The organization's policy work spans five strategic areas: cross-cutting governance measures (such as building AI regulatory capacity in government and establishing whistleblower protections for AI developers), addressing current harms (deepfakes, AI scams, privacy), national security (export controls on semiconductors and AI model weights), American innovation (funding for NIST, NAIRR, and data infrastructure), and emerging risks from advanced AI systems (incident reporting, capability evaluations, and AI safety research funding). ARI's ten guiding principles include navigating uncertainty, building regulatory muscle, maintaining America's AI lead, upskilling government, avoiding regulatory capture, moving quickly, regulating according to risk, contesting market concentration, embracing transformation, and adopting AI in government responsibly. As of early 2025, the organization had 37 staff members and an advisory board that includes prominent AI researchers such as Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley), Scott Aaronson (UT Austin), and Erik Brynjolfsson (Stanford). ARI's annual revenue grew from approximately $500,000 in 2023 to over $5.2 million in 2024, reflecting rapid organizational growth.