Open infrastructure for AI governance.
The map, the news, the tools, and the people for governing AI inside organizations. Maintained in the open. Free for anyone to use.
Operated by Synthetic Labs. No paywalls, no sales calls, no login to read.
Everything on the Commons is free: the Crosswalk, the tools, the workspace, the Brief, and the community. No paid tier, no trial clock, no ads. It is published by Synthetic Labs, Justin Ryan's AI governance consultancy, which earns its living from consulting work, not from the Commons. The Commons has nearly everything a small company would need to assess and govern AI; however, if you go through it and still need help, please feel free to connect with the consulting wing.
Start here if you run a small company
Five free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with what to do next.
Posture Review
Nine areas, 45 minutes, a scored report with your first ten actions.
What applies to me
Eight questions, a dated list of the laws that apply to you.
Security Essentials
Essential cyber hygiene sized to your company, with the Texas safe harbor tiers.
Domain check
Is your email and website set up to resist impersonation? Thirty seconds.
AI Tool Register
What the common AI tools do with your data, in plain language.
What's changing
Next deadlines
New Art. 5 bans (nudifier apps, CSAM) and Art. 50(2) marking for generative systems already on the market
Platform and hosting-platform duties
Effective, subject to attorney general rulemaking
Earliest end of the fine grace period (confirm)
Signatories to have interoperable watermark detection
SB 1119 (Adam's Law) effective
Five centers, one commons
Each part is free. Each part feeds the others.
The Crosswalk
Every law, standard, scheme, and player, mapped and dated.
The Wire
News, analysis, and research you can republish.
The Workspace
A free governance workspace for any organization.
The Ledger
Public attestations against the open Deployer Baseline.
Community
Roundtables, working groups, jobs, and people.
What applies to my organization?
Answer eight questions and get a dated list of the obligations that apply to you, each linked to its Crosswalk entry and to the Baseline controls that address it. No account needed.
Write for the Commons
Practitioners, lawyers, academics, and students publish on the Wire under their own names and licences.
How the Commons is funded: funding and independence. Operated by Synthetic Labs.