| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Nonprofit / think tank — digital rights and technology policy |
| Headquarters | Washington, DC |
| Known for | Civil-liberties-oriented technology policy advocacy; research on AI chatbot design, privacy, and user autonomy |
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, DC nonprofit focused on digital rights and technology policy. Its AI work centers on the privacy, autonomy, and civil-liberties dimensions of consumer-facing AI systems.
Activities
CDT's principal AI-design publication is *Dark Patterns in AI Chatbots: A Taxonomy to Inform Better Design* (May 27, 2026), led by researcher Michal Luria. The report catalogues 37 dark patterns across five risk categories, covering both general-purpose assistants and dedicated companion apps. Its taxonomy and recommended mitigations are also summarized at AI Companions.
Positions
In June 2, 2026 coverage of the report, CDT urged policymakers to adopt data-minimization requirements and stronger user-autonomy measures to counter the patterns it documents (Source: insideaipolicy.com).
CDT filed a comment opposing the Federal Trade Commission's proposed AI policy statement, reported August 6, 2026, arguing that the statement would undermine accuracy and security best practices rather than improve them. CDT wrote that the proposal "would not make AI systems more accurate or unbiased" and would instead "empower the Commission to inappropriately pressure companies to shape" model behaviour. The remainder of the filing sits behind the publisher's paywall (Source: insideaipolicy.com). The position places CDT against the preemption-and-safe-harbor ask filed by the Consumer Technology Association on the same statement, and connects its consumer-facing AI work to the federal-state contest at AI Federalism.
Relationships
- related: AI Companions — CDT's dark-patterns taxonomy informs the companion-AI design and regulation debate
- related: Five Paradigms of AI Manipulation Governance
- related: Dark Patterns in AI Chatbots: A Taxonomy to Inform Better Design (CDT, 2026) — CDT's flagship AI-chatbot design report
- related: Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — CDT filed against the Commission's 2026 AI policy statement
- related: AI Federalism
Stub note. Concise entity page; the substantive AI work is anchored by the foundational source page Dark Patterns in AI Chatbots: A Taxonomy to Inform Better Design (CDT, 2026). Founding date, staff, and funding are omitted pending a primary source.