A tech nonprofit cuts its programs to bet on its Founders.

The Center for Humane Technology, the nonprofit co-founded by former Google product manager Tristan Harris and featured in the documentary The Social Dilemma, is laying off about half of its 16 non-founder employees and ending its policy research and litigation work, WIRED reported on Thursday, October 8, citing former staff. The nine departures include executive director Julie Guirado and senior director of strategy Camille Carlton, according to WIRED.

The board announced the change in a statement dated October 1. "We have decided to refocus CHT where we believe it can contribute most: founder-led public communication and decision-maker influence," it wrote.

What is ending, and what is left

The board said it would wind down the organization's in-house policy, litigation and research programs, its evaluations of AI's psychosocial impacts and a planned fellows program, and reduce staff in those areas. The remaining work is public education, targeted briefings and what the board calls private coordination, meaning bringing leaders together behind the scenes.

The founders will now lead the organization along with chief of staff Julie Johnston, and co-founder Randy Fernando will serve as interim executive director, the statement says. WIRED reported that the center has an annual budget of roughly $6 million, a similar amount in reserves, and funding from wealthy families and foundations.

Why the board says it chose

The statement says the center had been running two approaches at once, the founders' public communication and a staff-led program of research, policy and legal work. "But as AI accelerates, sustaining a nimble communications operation alongside a full programmatic institute within a small organization has created persistent tradeoffs in priorities, messaging, pace, situational analysis, and leadership attention," the board wrote.

"This moment of accelerated AI risk demands we focus on one strategy, and we have chosen to focus on what we have always done best so that we can meet the moment," board chair Premal Shah said in a statement to WIRED.

Not everyone agrees. WIRED spoke with 16 former workers, most of them anonymously, and some fear that resources will be diverted from concerns about AI's effect on democracy and civil liberties. "Whether that is wisdom or a retreat depends on whether you think the binding constraint on AI right now is still 'people haven't heard the argument' or 'the argument has no institutional teeth.' CHT is picking the first," said Gail Barnes, who advised the center on social media strategy in its early days. Shah disputed former staff members' descriptions of the center's culture, WIRED reported.

What any board can take from this

Whatever one thinks of the strategy, the board's statement is a useful model for how to announce a hard cut. In our view, five parts of it are worth copying.

1. Name what is stopping. The statement lists each program being wound down instead of describing a vague "refocus."
2. Finish what is in flight. The board kept its AI and What Makes Us Human initiative, including the Stop AI Drift campaign, running through the end of October to honor commitments to partners.
3. Call the funders. It says it will work directly with affected funders, partners and collaborators on what the change means for their projects.
4. Look after the people leaving. The board says it has committed financial support for departing staff. It also says it explored supporting an independent organization to carry the program work forward, and that this organization will not launch.
5. Plan for the founders. An organization built around its founders depends heavily on them. A board that makes that choice should also plan for succession. Our story on what a board is for covers the oversight duties behind that.