About us
The Transparency Coalition's mission is to champion policies that ensure AI technologies are developed and used in ways which prioritize safety, transparency, and the public good.
We believe artificial intelligence has the potential to be a powerful tool for human progress if properly trained and deployed within guardrails that protect US citizens and our democracy. We believe policies must be created to ensure model developers respect the rights of creators, reduce the potential for disinformation, and protect personal privacy by providing transparency and accepting accountability for the inputs and outputs of generative AI models.
We advocate for these beliefs through two complementary entities:
The Transparency Coalition, a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization is dedicated to conducting research, developing content, and educating the public on the opportunities and risks associated with generative AI and associated policies (or lack thereof).
The Transparency Coalition Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) Social Welfare Organization is specifically designed to engage in advocacy and lobbying activities to influence public policy and legislation related to generative AI.
All of our work is guided by these key principles.
Protect Citizens First, Starting with Kids: For the last 20 years, the health and well-being of US citizens, especially children, has been an afterthought in the race towards profits masked as innovation. This must end now.
Do Something: The 15-year experiment of policymakers hoping social media companies and leadership will “do the right thing” has failed. Repeatedly. Given how much technology touches our lives, our country needs guardrails with real teeth combined with active enforcement. We won’t be sitting on the sidelines, and our partners in the policy ecosystem will be action-oriented like we are.
Invest In Partnerships: We don’t profess to have all the answers, nor can we go at this alone. We need allies, and we will do the work to build those relationships.
Support Small Business & Copyright Holders: Small businesses underpin our communities and provide nearly half the jobs in the United States. Small businesses include local publications, singers and songwriters, authors and publishing houses, and many other local businesses. These businesses deserve to decide who utilizes their data via opt-in or licensing.
Play The Long Game: We know we’re up against massive players with entrenched interests. But we’re not scared. We’ll keep fighting for as long as we can, maintaining our focus on the mission.
founders
Rob ELEVELD
Rob hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan. After college, he spent 5 years on active duty as a submarine officer in the United States Navy, serving aboard the fast attack submarine USS Batfish. Across a 25-year career in tech software and data companies, Rob is a 4-time CEO of early-to-mid stage companies in software and data beginning in 2000 with Vykor Inc., which he co-founded and led. Over the past 10 years at Whitepages Inc., he served in executive roles and eventually became CEO in 2016. Rob led the spinoff of the enterprise unit, rebranded Ekata Inc. in 2019, which Mastercard acquired in 2021. Rob has a BA in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and an MBA as well as an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University.
Jai jaisimha
Jai is a Seattle-based technology entrepreneur with expertise in AI enabled product development and data science. Jai has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a focus on AI from the University of Washington. During his career, Jai has founded or held leadership roles at four start-ups that leveraged AI/Machine Learning to build software applications, including Hitch Works Inc., acquired by Service Now in 2022 and Appnique which developed privacy preserving advertising technology solutions using AI/LLMs. At Microsoft, AOL and RealNetworks, Jai led pioneering initiatives in the digital distribution of content that ensured user privacy was respected and the rights of creators and copyright holders were protected.
Experts
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Adam Cappio
Adam Cappio is a veteran technologist based in the Seattle area. He has held long-term senior product management roles at RealNetworks, Expedia, and Nordstrom. His work has always included leading transformative, multi-year efforts that break significant technical barriers. He has a passion for analyzing challenges, developing achievable strategies for solving those challenges, and empathetically bringing others on the journey. He holds a Computer Engineering degree from Dartmouth College.
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Laura Morarity
Laura Morarity is the senior marketing advisor for the Transparency Coalition. She is responsible for the organization’s brand, online presence, and content strategy. In her 20+ years of PR and marketing experience, she’s focused her work on supporting companies and organizations at the forefront of technology and social change, helping them turn their deep insight into industry-moving action.
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Bruce Barcott
TCAI Editorial Lead Bruce Barcott is the author of several award-winning books, including The Measure of a Mountain, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, and Weed the People. His investigations have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, and National Geographic, and his honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Washington State Book Award. At TCAI, Bruce strives to make the emerging world of AI accessible to non-technical readers around the world.
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Chris Steck
Chris Steck has led technology strategy and standards for companies like Microsoft, RealNetworks, Cisco, and Xperi for over 25 years. His past standards leadership roles include CTO of IMTC, Strategy chair for Open Connectivity Foundation and IoT Strategic Advisor for GlobalPlatform. Most recently, Chris led EIDR’s Content Authenticity initiative. Chris is passionate about ethical and transparent AI and drives emerging standards and open source to facilitate developer implementation of AI policy and regulation.
success stories
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Pluribus news highlights transparency coalition's work on ai legislation
Oct. 11, 2024 — A feature article in Pluribus News captured the rising momentum around AI-related legislation and the Transparency Coalition’s role in crafting appropriate safeguards.
“The 17 artificial intelligence bills California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last month capped a year of states racing past Congress to lay down some of the booming technology’s first guardrails,” wrote veteran legislative reporter Austin Jenkins. “The momentum in states to protect against AI’s potential harms without hindering innovation is likely to only pick up in 2025.”
The article recognized the Transparency Coalition’s ongoing work crafting model legislation and identifying potential bill authors in more than a half-dozen states who are expected to introduce AI-related proposals early next year.
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California AI Transparency Act signed into law, a historic first for AI disclosure
Sept. 19, 2024 — In a significant early step for AI safety and transparency, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California AI Transparency Act into law earlier this morning.The Act, authored as SB 942 by state Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) with support from noted privacy and AI safety advocate Tom Kemp, creates the nation’s first AI notification standard.
The Act requires AI developers to embed detection tools in the media their AI creates, and to post an AI decoder tool on their website. The decoder tool would allow consumers to upload digital media and discover whether the developer’s AI was used to create that content.
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Big win for AI transparency: California Gov. Newsom signs Training Data Act into law
Sept. 29, 2024 — In a landmark victory for AI transparency, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California Training Data Transparency Act into law over the weekend.
The Act, introduced earlier this year as AB 2013 by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, will require developers of generative AI systems to post information about the data used to train their AI system on their websites.
The Act’s signing was hailed by Transparency Coalition.AI (TCAI) co-founders Rob Eleveld and Jai Jaisimha as a watershed moment in AI safety and transparency. AB 2013 was one of TCAI’s top priority measures in Sacramento this year, along with the California AI Transparency Act, which was signed into law by Gov. Newsom earlier this month.
TCAI IN THE NEWS
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States maintain lead on ai regulation in trump era
The state-led efforts to establish guardrails on artificial intelligence are likely to continue unabated when President-elect Trump takes office next year. They could even accelerate if Trump follows through on a promise to repeal President Biden’s executive order on AI. Read the full Pluribus News article here.
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Ensuring Transparency in Gen AI models: a conversation with Rob Eleveld and Jai Jaisimha
TCAI founders Jai Jaisimha and Rob Eleveld articulate their strategy to hold AI developers like Open AI, Microsoft, Google and Meta accountable: Listen in on the TiE Seattle podcast.
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TCAI argues for AI openness and accountability at 2024 Nordic Innovation Summit
Speaking to an audience of more than 200 business and tech innovators, Transparency Coalition.AI founder Rob Eleveld yesterday advanced the cause of openness and accountability in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence systems.
“We believe there should be guardrails around AI,” Eleveld told attendees at the 2024 Nordic Innovation Summit in Seattle. “We believe it can be done without tamping down innovation.”
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Geekwire podcast: TCAI Founders talk training data
The co-founders of the Transparency Coalition, veteran startup founders and technology leaders Rob Eleveld and Jai Jaisimha, join the GeekWire Podcast to discuss their reasons for starting the organization, and their goals to help shape emerging legislation and public policy in this area. Read more and listen to the interview on GeekWire.
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A call for ai data transparency
University of Washington ECE alumnus and Affiliate Professor Jai Jaisimha (Ph.D. ‘96) has co-founded a new nonprofit organization, the Transparency Coalition.ai, which is advocating for transparency and regulation of the data used to train artificial intelligence. Read more about Jaismha’s research, entrepreneurial career, and AI policy work in this profile published by the UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
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Meet the Transparency coalition
The Transparency Coalition.ai is a different kind of startup. Founders Jai Jaisimha and Rob Eleveld were so frustrated with the lack of regulation around AI training data, they started a nonprofit to raise awareness and drive legislation before we make the same mistakes we did with allowing Social Media to hide behind Section 230. Read more on Cal McAllister’s Medium blog.
