19 September 2026 · top ten

Ten Questions to Ask Before You Walk Into the Room They Opened for You

Three AI companies opened a room for the rest of us this week: a consultation, a foundation, an institute. Before you walk into any of them, ten questions, ranked by how fast the honest answer empties the room.

10. Who wrote the invitation? If the company did, it also wrote the agenda. Microsoft's code of conduct is six weeks of comments on a document Microsoft can revise on a Tuesday.1 You're invited to improve their wording.

9. Who's on the letterhead? The DeepMind Institute has three directors and all three work for Google.2 "It shouldn't be technologists alone," signed by three technologists. Read the byline before the essay.

8. What are we allowed to talk about? Every question on the institute's list takes AGI as given and asks how to live with it. The one that isn't on the list, whether the company should be deciding, got answered by who signed.

7. Can the money stop? An institute director on this site had three tests for independence2: the funder can't cut the grant mid-term, can't read a paper before it's out, can't hire or fire the boss. Ask for all three. Count what you get.

6. What happened last time? Britain's safety institute has run on goodwill since 2023 and this week the biggest lab didn't come in.3 A room that's been open for years without anyone being made to enter is a room, not a rule.

5. Who picks the next people in the room? The OpenAI Foundation holds all the votes and its board picks itself.4 Ask who chooses the choosers. If the answer is "we do", you're an audience.

4. What's the word humanity doing in that sentence? A foundation holding shares for humanity is eleven people with a charter.4 When you hear humanity, ask for the roll of names.

3. Where's the person who does the job? Every room this week had directors and thinkers. None had a data annotator, a recruiter, a claims handler, a tenant. If the people the machine gets used on aren't in the room, the room is about them.

2. What can the people in this room stop? Not say. Stop. A release, a price, a rule. If the honest answer is nothing, you've been invited to a focus group with better biscuits.

1. What happens if we don't come? The only question with a lever in it. They opened the room because they need you in it: your data, your custom, your name on the consultation. The labs can lock in chips and staff. They can't lock in you.5 Ask what the room costs them empty. Then decide whether to fill it.

Ten and nine tell you who built the room. Two and one tell you whether to leave. Ask them in that order and you'll be out before the biscuits.