Project summary

As I mentioned in the WithMe development grant app (https://manifund.org/projects/seen--withme), tech and AI whistleblowers are being targeted for neutralization through harassment and intimidation.

In my work as an activist, I have seen plaintiffs deal with blackballing, bankrupting, stalking, harm to their families, physical harms, cybercrime, theft, property damage, and attempts on their lives.

I have been interviewing plaintiffs for ten months now to catalog the playbooks of different adversarial threat actors, and to help create a test case in which the threat actors are both identified, and available to sue.

The test case is now ready, and comprises over 5000 evidence files and hundreds of threat events recorded and backed up by several separate security firms.

However, most litigation funders are too risk averse to sue entities that harm whistleblowers. And most big law firms are conflicted out, because the companies that AI whistleblowers sue are massive with powerful ecosystems that are very entangled into US law firms.

So, how do we get around that? By crowdfunding the litigation.

The WithMe platform will do this at scale, but it's going to take a while to build.

I want to test that it works, now.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

The test case is ready to go as soon as funding for forensics is confirmed. The goals are to:

1) Help people know that this type of harm is common

2) Help publicize the playbooks so that firms can't get away with it

3) Help make adversaries stop harming AI whistleblowers so they can speak truth to power

4) Help hold bad actors accountable in the court of law, and court of public opinion

How will this funding be used?

The entire grant will be used for forensics and legal fees. The total case costs will likely be between $3-8M, but the initial block will enough to get it publicly filed, with public interest to get the rest funded.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

I am a high stakes plaintiffs who advises other high stakes plaintiffs. I deal with the impacts of whistleblowing every day. I am experienced in litigation, experienced in managing major, complex projects, and professionally trained in PR, security, finance, and strategy. Most importantly, I am not afraid, and I stay with my projects (and my whistleblowers) to see them all the way through.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

More and more AI whistleblowers will be effectively silenced, until warnings are always too late, if they exist at all.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

I have bootstrapped.