How Raben is Helping Clients Reshape AI Accountability, Equity, and Public Discourse

Artificial intelligence is upending how people work, how governments govern, and how power is distributed. Raben has been working with clients at the center of these debates to shape them, rather than simply responding to them. As a firm dedicated to advancing a more equitable, just, and fair America, Raben began working with AI long before it became trendy. We entered the AI domain because we saw early on that the stakes for our communities were too high to sit on the sidelines.

At Raben, we have a nuanced view of AI as a force multiplier for both opportunity and harm. It can accelerate medical breakthroughs and streamline public services. But it can also entrench bias in hiring and housing decisions, enable mass surveillance, and concentrate power in the hands of a few wealthy companies.

The question isn’t whether AI will transform society. It's who gets to shape that transformation — and who gets protected when it goes wrong. That question drives everything we do in this space.

We Help Clients Counter Dominant Narratives

When the AI Now Institute at NYU came to Raben in 2018, the challenge was clear: rigorous, equity-centered research was being drowned out by one-sided industry-funded narratives. Raben served as AI Now’s day-to-day communications shop — crafting a sharp counternarrative, managing press requests, preparing researchers for interviews, and building the infrastructure for rapid response. When major tech policy stories broke, we made sure AI Now’s voice was part of the conversation, not a footnote. The result was sustained coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, and Wired, positioning AI Now as a go-to source for journalists covering big tech accountability and AI governance. More importantly, this work was about helping everyday people understand the civil rights implications of AI when left unchecked.

We Hold AI Companies Accountable to the Public

In 2025, a coalition of civic organizations needed to rapidly mobilize public pressure around OpenAI's planned conversion to a for-profit entity — a move that threatened to undermine AI governance and accountability. Raben led the communications strategy, translating complex governance questions into accessible arguments for policymakers, media, and the public. We launched the campaign with an exclusive in the LA Times about the coalition's administrative petition to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and then generated sustained coverage in the Wall Street Journal, NBC, Wired, Politico, Bloomberg, and The Information. When OpenAI attempted to intimidate coalition members with subpoenas, we prepared spokespeople for rapid response — including a coalition member’s appearance on the New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast. We helped formally brand the coalition as the EyesOnOpenAI campaign with a visual identity and website to reinforce the narrative Raben has developed. In just a few short months, the campaign generated over 40 media hits, reached an estimated 488 million people, and was a driving force behind AG Bonta’s decision to investigate the company’s conflicts of interest.

We Help Industry Ensure the Benefits of Technology Reach Diverse Consumers

No one is too big to meet communities where they are. For nearly a decade, Raben has advised Google on how to engage meaningfully with Black, Latino, and AAPI communities as new AI tools are developed and brought to market. That work goes beyond outreach. We help identify which leaders and organizations carry genuine trust in their communities, and we help design the forums and conversations where those leaders can ask the hard questions about how AI is being built and for whom.

Civil rights organizations and diverse community leaders are not rubber stamps. Done right, that engagement strengthens AI products, builds public trust, and ensures the communities with the most at stake have a real voice in the outcome.

We Advise Government on How to Regulate AI

We worked with a state attorney general’s office to help inform their legislative and policy approach to AI. The office came to Raben because they knew we would have a perspective on AI cognizant of both its risks and potential benefits, that we would neither be reflexively opposed to its use nor blind to the dangers. Over the course of our engagement, we surveyed the regulatory landscape, synthesized state-specific recommendations in light of their particular concerns (e.g., regarding employment practices or the state’s tech industry), and provided them with a potential regulatory framework.

Raben Practices What We Preach

Raben uses AI tools in our work to enhance quality, move faster, and sharpen our thinking to better serve our clients. But we hold ourselves to clear standards: human judgment and oversight at every stage, no confidential client information in AI platforms, and full transparency when AI plays a substantive role in a deliverable. We know these tools can reflect and amplify existing inequities. That's why diverse perspectives from our team shape every AI-assisted product before it reaches a client.

We also believe responsible AI use can't be left to individual firms acting alone. Companies must be transparent about how these tools are developed and deployed. Elected officials must establish guardrails that protect the public. We hold ourselves to these standards and advocate for the same from others.

The communities Raben serves don't have the luxury of waiting to see how this plays out. That means neither do we.