The AI Used By Privatizers

Here at the institute, we often wonder what would happen if we could just press a button and churn out more research, more postings across social media, and more emails to a vast mailing list of possibly-interested readers.

Of course, AI could do that, and so, of course, AI is doing that. At least, for one chosen sector of clients.

Meet Technology for Freedom. 

T4G can "supercharge your intel & influence" and their promise is simple and clear. 

We help MAGA advocates, think tanks, and influencers dominate the battlefield with AI that delivers real results.

Discover your next secret weapon.

The company appears to have been founded in March of 2024 by founder Daniel Poynter. Poynter is a 2008 graduate of Purdue (Philosophy) with a MacArthur Young Innovator award. Since 2004 he's been a busy guy; he has 18 jobs on his LinkedIn profile, including gigs like web developing, IT stuff, digital literacy, coaching for social entrepreneurs, and founding/running Carbon Neutral Indiana ("fun and effective climate action") an outfit that seems to deal with educating ordinary folks and brokering carbon credits for other folks. 

His head of engineering is John Bohlmann, a top-of-class computer grad from Purdue (2011) who has done a mountain of tech work. 

If "you're a think tank or advocacy organization, fighting for the spirit of 1776," T4F offers three main services--

AI-powered research, AI-powered advocacy, and AI training.

This breaks down to "value" services like AI-compiled contact lists. For example, they helped the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (the pro-privatization pressure group) "get contact information, even once unavailable residential mailing addresses, of thousands of elected officials in Michigan." They helped School Boards for Academic Excellence (the anti-woke school board association) find thousands of school board members in 19 states.

They can automate workflows:

Free up time, cut costs, and scale faster with AI-powered automation. 

Your team is wasting hours on manual, repetitive tasks - hours that could be spent growing your movement, winning more fights, and driving real impact.

 For example, they helped EdChoice data mine public comments at public school board meetings and "uncover a new source of public sentiment." They helped the team of  Heritage Foundation and EdChoice "find and analyze media coverage of school choice debates."

They can offer this creepy service:

Increase Your Influence with AI-Powered Social Network Analysis 

Power isn't just about what you know - it’s about who you know. 

Our AI-powered Social Network Analysis (SNA) helps you map relationships, uncover hidden influencers, and identify leverage points to maximize your reach and impact. Whether you’re engaging donors, studying the opposition, or finding ins to key decision-makers, SNA gives you a strategic advantage. 

Real Results

Increase meetings with high-net-worth donors 

Identify key decision-makers and their trusted connections 

Map opposition networks and uncover their coordination strategies

They can also provide AI guidance on demand, including strategizing and leadership advice The specifics here are particularly alarming:

We advised a Governor’s Office on how AI can uncover regulatory overreach by comparing agency rules to the original laws passed by elected representatives. 

We identified how a national non-profit can automate the monitoring of hundreds of university websites, saving over $1.5 million.

The website includes some chirpy endorsements, including kudos from Paul DiPerna of EdChoice, Jason Bedrick of The Heritage Foundation , and Jarrett Skorup of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Bedrick's endorsement includes 

I strongly recommend Technology for Freedom to any think tank or advocacy organization looking to enhance their research capabilities through AI while maintaining academic rigor...

So if you've been up late thinking about all the scary ways AI can be used, add outfits like this (I'm betting this isn't the only one). Let's salute the brave new world where political advocacy is an arms race between competing bots. Should be delightful. Also, folks who keep insisting that AI will be objective and fair and unbiased really, really don't get it. Don't think of AI as a dispassionately objective arbiter; think of it as a for-hire creature that will do whatever it is hired to do, dispassionately freed from any conscience or scruples. AI is not Spock; it is Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, or Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first Terminator. And some folks have already hired it and put it to use.