Encode

Encode AI Corporation, commonly known as Encode (and formerly operating as Encode Justice), is a youth-led nonprofit organization advancing AI safety, governance, and accountability through nonpartisan legislative advocacy and public education. The organization was founded in July 2020 by Sneha Revanur, who was then a fifteen-year-old high school student at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose, California. Revanur was inspired to act after encountering California Proposition 25, a ballot measure related to the use of pretrial risk assessment algorithms in the criminal justice system. Encode has grown from a student project into a significant force in AI policy. The organization is headquartered in Washington, DC with an additional office in Sacramento, California. Its 9-person core team is supported by an international network of over 1,300 young volunteers organized into chapters across every inhabited continent. The organization has achieved several landmark legislative victories. Encode sponsored and helped pass California SB 53 (the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act), signed by Governor Newsom in September 2025, which established the nation's first transparency requirements for frontier AI models. Encode also led the push to pass the first U.S. law governing AI in nuclear weapons systems, included as Section 1638 in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Biden in December 2024. Additionally, the organization helped pass the TAKE IT DOWN Act, the first federal law against deepfake pornography, and successfully defeated a proposed 10-year moratorium on U.S. states regulating AI. In late 2024, Encode filed an amicus brief in Musk v. Altman opposing OpenAI's restructuring into a for-profit entity, arguing it would undermine commitments to AI safety. The brief was supported by AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Stuart Russell. In 2025, OpenAI subpoenaed Encode's general counsel Nathan Calvin, which the organization publicly characterized as an intimidation tactic against a small nonprofit with just three full-time employees. Encode has also launched public education initiatives including Game Plan (planforai.org), a guide for young people entering AI careers, and the AI 2030 platform outlining 22 specific goals for responsible AI governance by 2030. Founder Sneha Revanur was the youngest person named to TIME's inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023. The organization is supported by individual donors and philanthropic foundations including the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, the Archewell Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the We Are Family Foundation, America's Promise Alliance, and the Future of Life Institute. It deliberately does not accept funding from corporations, foreign governments, or executives at top AI companies. Encode originally operated as a fiscal project of Future Incubator (a program of March On Foundation and Future Coalition) before incorporating independently as Encode AI Corporation.