Power–Counter-Rights Rule
Create new rights whenever technology creates a new form of power
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
Harris proposes a direct governance rule: when technology increases power, society should increase countervailing rights and protections. The right is derived from the capability. Permanent digital memory motivates a right to be forgotten; easy voice and image replication motivates rights over likeness; systems able to influence cognition motivate protection for cognitive liberty. Applying the rule requires identifying who gains the new power, who becomes vulnerable, and which liberty is at risk. A complete response then adds enforcement, remedy, and oversight rather than relying on a statement of principle. The framework aims to preserve checks and balances before surveillance or control becomes normalized. The particular rights named are Harris's policy proposals, not claims that all are currently established in law.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO
Core principles
- 01New technical power creates new opportunities for abuse
- 02Old rights may not cover novel capabilities
- 03Protections should grow before power becomes entrenched
- 04Checks and balances must remain meaningful in practice
How to run it
- 1
Identify the new power
Describe what a company, government, or individual can now do that was previously impossible or impractical.
Pro tip Specify the capability, scale, and cost change.
- 2
Map the power relationship
Identify who controls the capability and whose identity, liberty, privacy, or cognition it can affect.
Watch out Do not assess the tool only from the operator's perspective.
- 3
Define the counter-right
Formulate a protection that directly limits or balances the novel capability.
Pro tip Write the protection around the human interest, not a single product implementation.
- 4
Build enforcement
Specify consent, transparency, audit, appeal, liability, or other mechanisms that make the right usable.
Pro tip Include a practical remedy when the right is violated.
Watch out A right without enforcement may not constrain concentrated power.
- 5
Reassess as power grows
Review whether technical scale or new uses have outgrown the original protection and strengthen it when needed.
Watch out Delayed protections may arrive after the power structure is difficult to reverse.
In the wild
Harris says AI can reproduce a person's voice from a short sample and create an avatar from available images. Under his rule, that capability should be matched by rights governing a person's likeness, supported by consent and enforceable remedies.
→ The legal protection scales in response to a new identity-replication power.
Harris uses permanent technological memory to illustrate the rule: a capability to remember people indefinitely creates a reason for a countervailing ability to remove or limit that memory.
→ A new protection is derived from the asymmetry created by persistent storage.
Common mistakes
Naming a right without a remedy
A principle does not counter power unless affected people can invoke and enforce it.
Waiting for normalized abuse
Once a powerful system is embedded, creating effective checks can become harder.
Is it for you?
Best for
Policymakers and product leaders evaluating surveillance, synthetic media, memory, profiling, or behavioral manipulation.
Not ideal for
Minor capabilities that do not materially alter power over another person's liberty, identity, or autonomy.
From the transcript
“when you increase power, you have to also increase counter rights”
“We don't need the right to our likeness until AI can just suck your likeness”
From the episode
AI Expert: We Have 2 Years Before Everything Changes! We Need To Start Protesting! - Tristan Harris