ILINA Program

AI safety with the subaltern in mind

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

New guide for AI workers, co-authored by our former Research Scholar, Jean Jeptoo ⬇️

[AIWI - The AI Whistleblower Initiative @AIWI_Official]

California's TFAIA and New York's RAISE Act both include whistleblower provisions for AI workers. Which better protects the people building frontier AI?

Neither, categorically. It depends. Our new comparative guide breaks it down.

What the guide finds:
📌 New York offers broader substantive coverage: contractors and former employees are explicitly protected, and any worker can report a "substantial and specific danger to public health or safety".

📌 California offers a more worker-friendly burden of proof: a "contributing factor" test shifts the burden to the employer to prove it would have acted the same way anyway.

📌 California bars the contractual mechanisms e.g. NDAs, pre-dispute arbitration, equity-linked offboarding that have historically kept disclosures out of view. New York does not.

📌 Both states still have gaps. Neither defines clear response obligations for authorities, and neither expressly covers equity in remedies.

The guide also sets out targeted recommendations for legislators and workers in both states.

Read the full guide in the comment below ⬇️

#AIWhistleblower #AIPolicy #TFAIA #RAISEAct

[AIWI - The AI Whistleblower Initiative @AIWI_Official]

California's TFAIA and New York's RAISE Act both include whistleblower provisions for AI workers. Which better protects the people building frontier AI?

Neither, categorically. It depends. Our new comparative guide breaks it down.

What the guide finds:
📌 New York offers broader substantive coverage: contractors and former employees are explicitly protected, and any worker can report a "substantial and specific danger to public health or safety".

📌 California offers a more worker-friendly burden of proof: a "contributing factor" test shifts the burden to the employer to prove it would have acted the same way anyway.

📌 California bars the contractual mechanisms e.g. NDAs, pre-dispute arbitration, equity-linked offboarding that have historically kept disclosures out of view. New York does not.

📌 Both states still have gaps. Neither defines clear response obligations for authorities, and neither expressly covers equity in remedies.

The guide also sets out targeted recommendations for legislators and workers in both states.

Read the full guide in the comment below ⬇️

#AIWhistleblower #AIPolicy #TFAIA #RAISEAct

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

You can now read a new piece by our Research Associate Marie Iradukunda @MarieIrad on the need for strengthening AI incident reporting in Africa, for the benefit of global AI Safety. Read, share: https://t.co/SJLdYNXzbJ

[AIWI - The AI Whistleblower Initiative @AIWI_Official]

New op-ed in @techpolicypress by AIWI founder Karl Koch, with Raqda Sayidali (ILINA / CARMA) and Abra Ganz (Pour Demain / CARMA):

The AWPA is the strongest AI whistleblower proposal drafted to date — and the first serious federal attempt to write protections specifically for the people building frontier AI.

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

Good news for Africans keen on opportunities in the AI x risk space: We have developed a comprehensive list of opportunities and added advisories - based on implicit and explicit evidence - touching on how to know whether you're a good fit. Read and share: https://t.co/uUzivy5mhF

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

Our Research Scholar Raqda Sayidali @Raqda4 has co-authored an Op Ed on why the U.S. Congress needs to act now on AI whistleblower law ⬇️https://t.co/pPhg1GKbZ4

[Faith Gakii @FaithGaks]

I think AI safety is an increasingly urgent and important field to be working in, and I’m glad that I’ll be spending more time contributing to it this year!

[Cecil Yongo @CecilYongo]

I’m very bullish about having our best people work with our partners who’re doing important AI safety work. Really glad Faith will be on this.

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

We're pleased to announce that our Research Editor Faith Gakii @FaithGaks is joining Legal Safety Lab as a Visiting Research Fellow. She will work with the team on the potential of corporate governance as a lever for AI safety across the compute supply chain.

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

You can now read an analysis of the AI Whistleblower Protection Act, which our current Research Scholar Raqda Sayidali @Raqda4 and previous Research Scholar Mark Gitau @MarkLenny5 co-authored with Abra Ganz and Karl Koch ⬇️

[AIWI - The AI Whistleblower Initiative @AIWI_Official]

Our recent policy analysis with CARMA examines the AI Whistleblower Protection Act (AWPA), the first federal bill written squarely for people who raise concerns from inside AI companies.

It already clears the fundamentals: a reasonable-belief standard, protection for internal reporting alongside disclosures to regulators or Congress, a burden of proof matched to existing federal whistleblower law, and remedies that include reinstatement, double back pay with interest, and a block on forced arbitration.

What remains is not a matter of intent but of scope. We map five categories where the bill's current text falls short of best practice: material scope, personal scope, penalties, remedies and retaliation, and reporting channels.

Closing them is what separates a law that sounds protective from one that actually insulates the people it names.

Authored by:
- Mark Gitau, Legal Research Fellow, CARMA
- Raqda Sayidali, Research Scholar, ILINA Program & Legal Research Fellow, CARMA
- Karl Koch, Founder & MD, AIWI
- Abra Ganz, Senior Researcher, CARMA / Head of AI Policy, Pour Demain

Full analysis: https://t.co/qgrsAjvxts

#AIWI #TheAIWhistleblowerInitiative #AIWhistleblower #AIPolicy #AIGovernance #AIAccountability #AIgovernance #AIsafety #AIWPA

[AIWI - The AI Whistleblower Initiative @AIWI_Official]

Our recent policy analysis with CARMA examines the AI Whistleblower Protection Act (AWPA), the first federal bill written squarely for people who raise concerns from inside AI companies.

It already clears the fundamentals: a reasonable-belief standard, protection for internal reporting alongside disclosures to regulators or Congress, a burden of proof matched to existing federal whistleblower law, and remedies that include reinstatement, double back pay with interest, and a block on forced arbitration.

What remains is not a matter of intent but of scope. We map five categories where the bill's current text falls short of best practice: material scope, personal scope, penalties, remedies and retaliation, and reporting channels.

Closing them is what separates a law that sounds protective from one that actually insulates the people it names.

Authored by:
- Mark Gitau, Legal Research Fellow, CARMA
- Raqda Sayidali, Research Scholar, ILINA Program & Legal Research Fellow, CARMA
- Karl Koch, Founder & MD, AIWI
- Abra Ganz, Senior Researcher, CARMA / Head of AI Policy, Pour Demain

Full analysis: https://t.co/qgrsAjvxts

#AIWI #TheAIWhistleblowerInitiative #AIWhistleblower #AIPolicy #AIGovernance #AIAccountability #AIgovernance #AIsafety #AIWPA

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

We look forward to continue supporting policy efforts across the continent. If you work for an African government and you want our (free) assistance, please reach out via infoatilinaprogramdotorg

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

We congratulate the Kenya AI Policy team on releasing the Draft National AI Policy. We are particularly pleased to see the Draft Policy take several pro-AI safety stances, including ⬇️ https://t.co/w6w72KQHia

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

1. Endorsing the focus on AI safety and security as critical issues worth considerable attention
2. Endorsing the institutionalization of the Kenya AI Safety Institute
3. Endorsing a push to make Kenya an African leader in third party AI risk evaluation ecosystems

[Elvis Mogesa @mogesa_elvis]

I am pleased to join ILINA as a Junior Research Scholar! I look forward to producing research that is impactful, relevant, and for the betterment of the world at large.

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

We're pleased to welcome to our team a new Junior Research Scholar, Elvis Mogesa @mogesa_elvis. Alongside his role at ILINA, Elvis will be a Visiting Research Fellow with the Legal Safety Lab, where he will work on how best to leverage EU legal frameworks to advance AI safety.

[Elvis Mogesa @mogesa_elvis]

Conference Paper Presentation ✨

I’m pleased to share that the paper @CecilYongo and I co-authored, “Liberating AI Risk and Harm Evaluations from the Proceduralist Trap,” has been presented at the just concluded 2026 @FAccTConference 1/

[ILINA Program @ILINAProgram]

Our AI Safety Evaluations Lead Gathoni Ireri @gathoni_ireri has spent over 7 months working on a randomized control trial assessing the extent to which AI models can manipulate African people using them for healthcare advise. You can now read her new paper and see her results ⬇️

[Gathoni Ireri @gathoni_ireri]

New preprint! As AI gets integrated into healthcare across Africa, we wanted to know: can these systems manipulate patients into choosing the "wrong" treatment? In an RCT with Kenyan participants, they could, even when people were warned it might happen.

[Gathoni Ireri @gathoni_ireri]

New preprint! As AI gets integrated into healthcare across Africa, we wanted to know: can these systems manipulate patients into choosing the "wrong" treatment? In an RCT with Kenyan participants, they could, even when people were warned it might happen.

[Raqda @Raqda4]

Last week I attended the Law Following AI (LFAI) Summer School run by @law_ai_ and it has been a major highlight of my year with regard to my research. I’m excited to keep thinking about and exploring the hard questions posed by LFAI! Thank you @law_ai_ team for the opportunity.