The Wichita Accord
Human Alignment Before AI Alignment.
Artificial intelligence is advancing at a pace that threatens to exceed humanity’s ability to understand, govern, and adapt to its consequences. Yet the people whose lives will be most affected are largely absent from the conversations shaping its development.
The Wichita Accord is an effort to change that.
Beginning in the Air Capital of the World, we’re bringing together the people developing frontier artificial intelligence and the communities whose futures they are shaping—not for another listening exercise, but to establish meaningful understanding, mutual responsibility, and a shared path forward.
Meet the Future as Equals
Collaborating Organizations
Convened by:
Serving as the local academic and institutional convener, bringing together the diverse voices, organizations, and communities necessary for meaningful dialogue.
Practiced by:
Bringing practical experience in artificial intelligence, robotics, workforce adaptation, and human-centered technology deployment to help translate understanding into meaningful preparation and action.
Equality doesn't begin when Wichita meets Silicon Valley.
It begins when Wichita meets itself.
Before we can meaningfully engage the people developing the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence, we must first understand one another.
The Wichita Accord brings together workers, employers, educators, students, parents, faith communities, people with disabilities, caregivers, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, seniors, and others whose experiences reveal different opportunities and challenges created by technological change.
These aren’t simply demographic groups. They represent different relationships with a future being shaped by technologies most people have had little opportunity to understand.
Our first responsibility is to ensure these voices can participate meaningfully—not simply be heard.
Human Alignment Before AI Alignment
Before we can align artificial intelligence with humanity, shouldn’t we first work toward greater understanding and alignment among ourselves?
Much of the artificial intelligence industry is focused on aligning increasingly powerful AI systems with human values.
But whose values? Who gets to articulate them? And how can we align artificial intelligence with humanity when humanity itself has had so little opportunity to understand what is being developed?
The Wichita Accord begins with a different question.
We are not seeking universal agreement. We are seeking mutual understanding, areas of mutual benefit, and relationships that allow people with different experiences, expertise, and interests to participate in shaping our collective future.
Why Now?
We may be entering one of the most consequential technological transitions in human history.
Artificial intelligence and robotics are advancing faster than many of the institutions responsible for preparing people to live and work alongside them.
The decisions being made today could fundamentally reshape employment, education, healthcare, economic opportunity, and individual agency.
Yet most people are being asked to form opinions about technologies they have never meaningfully encountered or understood.
The question is no longer simply how we prepare people for the future. It’s whether they will have an opportunity to participate in shaping it before that future arrives.
The window to establish those relationships is narrowing.
Community education, preparation, and engagement continue throughout the Road to the Accord. The delegation’s visit is an initial outreach, not the culmination of the community’s participation.
The Road to the Accord is not a single event or a series of meetings. It is an ongoing process of education, preparation, and engagement designed to bring people from across the community into meaningful conversations about the future of artificial intelligence.
Over the course of months, workers, employers, educators, students, parents, people with disabilities, caregivers, seniors, veterans, faith communities, and others will have opportunities to learn about emerging AI capabilities and explore what those developments could mean for their lives.
This preparation recognizes that different communities face different challenges, possess different experiences, and may see opportunities that others overlook.
Alongside this broader effort, a small delegation will be prepared to make an initial visit to Silicon Valley.
The delegation is not traveling to negotiate on behalf of Wichita or present a list of demands. It is our first gesture of goodwill toward the frontier AI community—a demonstration that we are willing to listen, learn, and work together.
We will then invite frontier AI leaders to Wichita to engage directly with the broader community, which will have been preparing for meaningful participation throughout the Road to the Accord.
Our objective is not to manufacture consensus or demand agreement.
We are seeking mutual understanding, opportunities for mutual benefit, and an Accord that respects the interests and agency of everyone involved.
Preparing a Community, Not Just a Delegation
Artificial intelligence will not affect everyone in the same way.
The delegation will travel to Silicon Valley. But the Road to the Accord belongs to the entire community.
A factory worker, a parent, a person with a disability, a small-business owner, an incarcerated individual preparing to reenter society, and an older adult hoping to maintain independence may encounter very different opportunities and challenges.
The Road to the Accord recognizes these differences.
Over the coming months, we intend to work with organizations and communities throughout Wichita to develop opportunities for people to understand emerging technologies in the context of their own lives.
This is not simply about teaching people how to use AI tools.
It is about understanding what increasingly capable artificial intelligence and robotics could make possible, what they could disrupt, and what questions communities should be asking of the people developing them.
Why Wichita?
For generations, Wichita has helped humanity take flight.
Wichita understands that the future of aviation was never just about the aircraft. It was also about the people aboard.
The Air Capital of the World understands that extraordinary technological achievements require more than brilliant engineering. They require skilled workers, trusted institutions, rigorous preparation, and an understanding of the people who depend upon the technology.
Imagine developing an aircraft capable of traveling at Mach 10 while the rest of the world is still learning to maintain conventional passenger jets.
The engineers building that aircraft possess extraordinary expertise. But the pilots, mechanics, passengers, and communities affected by its operation have experiences and needs that cannot simply be ignored.
Artificial intelligence presents a similar challenge.
The Wichita Accord begins by bringing the engineers and the passengers into the same conversation.
What Happens After the Accord?
The goal is not simply to bring people together for a series of conversations.
The Wichita Accord seeks to establish ongoing relationships between communities and the people developing frontier artificial intelligence.
Those relationships can help identify emerging challenges, reveal opportunities, inform practical responses, and create pathways for continued cooperation as the technology evolves.
Wichita is where we begin—not necessarily where this effort ends.
Ways to Get Involved if You...
The future of artificial intelligence should not be shaped exclusively by those developing it.
Whether you’re a worker wondering what automation means for your livelihood, a parent concerned about your children’s future, a researcher developing new capabilities, or someone who sees opportunities others may have overlooked, your experience may reveal something important.
The Wichita Accord is building a process through which those perspectives can become part of a meaningful conversation with the people shaping the technology.
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Wichita Collaborates with Serviti Corps and Newman University on Launch of the Wichita Accord, Announce Oct. 26 Public Forum
“Knowing how to use AI shouldn’t be a prerequisite for having a voice in the future it creates.”
Everyone deserves a voice in the future artificial intelligence is creating. But having a voice and being equipped to use it effectively are two different things. The Wichita Accord is an effort to ensure people have the opportunity to do both.
— John McElligott, CEO, Serviti Corps