A deep-pocketed, California-based philanthropic network is working to counterbalance tech industry lobbying in states by issuing grants to a constellation of pro-tech regulation groups active in legislative advocacy.
Omidyar Network, launched more than two decades ago by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, is a growing force in Sacramento and beyond. With generative artificial intelligence booming, the network narrowed its focus last year to “technology’s role in society.”
As part of that pivot, it is directing more of its money to groups working on state-level tech regulation, especially in California, for policy fights dominated by billion- and trillion-dollar companies and their network of trade groups.
“We think Big Tech and Big AI are tilting the playing field away from the public interest, and it’s really important for us to shore that up as much as we can,” Anamitra Deb, Omidyar Network’s senior vice president of programs and policy, told Pluribus News.
“Someone has to be in the fight to make sure that we have some safeguards and guardrails,” Deb said.
Operated as a philanthropic investment firm, the Omidyar Network has contributed $1.94 billion to various initiatives since its founding in 2004. That includes $1.12 billion in nonprofit grants and $739 million to for-profit entities.
Deb acknowledged Omidyar Network’s billionaire backing, but said it is still “tiny drops in the bucket” compared to what the tech industry can spend.
The effort comes as states have emerged as the test beds for AI regulation amid federal inaction, prompting opposition from the tech industry and venture capitalists who warn that a state-by-state approach will harm innovation, strangle startups and hand China a competitive edge.
Read more: Lawmakers face mounting tech opposition over AI rules
The tech industry is taking note.
“Omidyar is obviously one of the big players,” said Adam Kovacevich founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, which describes itself as a center-left tech industry policy coalition.
Kovacevich said the nonprofits that Omidyar Network funds represent one leg of a three-legged stool of entities that are adverse to the tech industry: organized labor, disrupted industries and foundation-funded public interest groups.
“Their strategy has been to create and invest in multiple nonprofit entities that can create kind of an echo chamber, even if they’re all funded by the same source,” Kovacevich said.
Omidyar Network is primarily active in California, where it has invested upwards of $10 million over the past 18-plus months in nonprofits, advocacy groups, research organizations and private companies.
Grant recipients include organizations engaged in Sacramento policymaking, including California Common Cause, Common Sense Media, Economic Security Project Action, TechEquity and Tech Oversight California. More grants are planned in the future, according to a spokesperson.
All of the recipients reached by Pluribus News described Omidyar Network’s support as vital to their work.
“Independent nonprofits like Tech Oversight Project have a fighting chance against big tech companies’ influence thanks to valuable partners like the Omidyar Network,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project.
“Omidyar’s superpower is convening advocates, then trusting us to lead,” said Teri Olle, director of Economic Security California Action.
The groups Omidyar Network supports in California are already delivering results.
The Tech Oversight Project launched a California-focused project this year that backed seven bills in the legislature, including regulations on AI and social media. All but one was signed into law.
California Common Cause is the parent organization of the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, which supported a dozen bills this year to regulate generative AI, automated decision making, social media and data privacy. Four were signed into law.
Common Sense Media sponsored two bills in California this year to regulate companion chatbots and require warning labels on social media. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed the chatbot bill but signed the warning labels one.
James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, said Omidyar Network’s funding “has enabled us to deepen and expand our reach to policymakers and families in California, particularly with regard to protecting kids and teens from dangerous AI chatbots.”
Omidyar Network’s funding tentacles reach beyond California.
It supports youth-led advocacy groups nationwide through the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, a pooled effort with other philanthropies. The fund this year awarded $2.4 million to 18 organizations, including some that are active in state legislatures.
According to its 2023 nonprofit filing, other Omidyar Network funding recipients have included: London-based 5Rights Foundation, which was instrumental in the passage of California’s 2022 Age-Appropriate Design Code law; Consumer Reports, which is active in privacy and AI regulation efforts in the states; and Public Citizen, which has developed model legislation to regulate election deepfakes.
Besides its grantmaking, Omidyar Network has also taken a more direct role in Sacramento policy fights. It endorsed 17 AI-related bills in the California Legislature this year on topics such as transparency and accountability, consumer and worker protections, and antitrust. One endorsement was later rescinded.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed nine of those measures into law, including a landmark AI safety measure.
“A very immediate metric of success is how many bills we can get signed,” Deb said.
The slate of bill endorsements represented Omidyar Network’s “most significant state-level legislative engagement to date.”
Besides the California bills, Omidyar Network endorsed Kids Code laws, which have been passed in California, Maryland and Nebraska, as well as the federal Kids Online Safety Act, which has not been passed.
Read more: Neb., Vt. pass Kids Code bills to regulate online platforms for minors
It opposed a federal moratorium on state-level artificial intelligence regulation, which Congress considered this summer.
“We’re trying to make sure that common, everyday people have common-sense regulation so that they feel that technology is accessible, equitable, safe, and they have a say in how it works for them,” Deb said. “And that’s what democracy’s about.”
Omidyar Network also has a history of seeking to influence the tech industry as an “impact investor” in companies.
Last year, in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Nathan Cummings Foundation, it bought nearly 50,000 shares in Anthropic, a leading AI company that Omidyar Network CEO Mike Kubzansky said has a reputation for “transparency, accountability, and safety.”
Other initiatives include: a $25 million joint commitment with the Kapor Foundation and San Francisco Foundation to support “equitable and ethical AI”; a $30 million fund tied to the “responsible development of generative AI”; and a partnership with the California Council on Science and Technology and the Kapor Foundation to launch a Legislative Academy on AI for California legislative staff.
Omidyar Network was announced this week as co-chair of a coalition of foundations that are establishing a $500 million fund to support organizations working to ensure “people and communities beyond Silicon Valley have a stake in the future of artificial intelligence.”