Artificial intelligence is already changing young people’s lives. Students are generating essays with a few clicks. Young people are becoming entangled in emotionally-manipulative relationships with chatbots. Seven out of 10 teens have used a generative AI tool — systems that can amplify bias and misinformation. Parents and teachers can’t keep up.

Common Sense Media is stepping in to help. Since 2003, the nonprofit has successfully advocated for young people through huge shifts in media from TV and video games to social media, earning the trust of parents and educators along the way. The group says that each year more than 150 million people worldwide use its detailed entertainment and tech ratings and reviews that help parents and caregivers make informed choices about what media kids should consume. Its classroom curriculum and reports on kids’ media use have made the group an influential and authoritative resource in education and academic circles. It has become a powerful voice for state-level policy change.

“We’re really three nonprofits rolled into one,” says Jim Steyer, Common Sense Media’s co-CEO and founder. “We rate, educate, and advocate.”

As head of the $34 million organization, Steyer has cultivated close relationships with Silicon Valley CEOs and courted big-name foundations, a rare straddling of cultures and funding streams. Big grant makers like the Gates and MacArthur foundations and Craig Newmark Philanthropies have been drawn to the group because of its reach. Lucrative partnerships with tech companies have helped diversify revenue and further expand Common Sense’s audience.

Now, as Common Sense jumps into the AI fray, it is using a lesson learned from the rise of social media: Wait too long to get in front of a new technology, and the playing field gets defined for you.