Public Pushback Against Ill-Effects of AI: Activists Target OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind Over High-Speed AI Development Risks, including that of Health 

Public pushback against ill-effects of AI: activists target OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind over high-speed AI development risks, including that of health. A crowd of about 200 protesters marched through downtown San Francisco, the global epicenter of artificial intelligence development, demanding that tech companies immediately stop the AI race. Carrying signs reading “stop slop” and “it’s not too late to regulate,” the demonstrators marched directly from the offices of OpenAI to Anthropic and Google DeepMind. The group asked chief executive officers to collectively pause all new training of frontier AI models, citing serious concerns over rising rents, severe environmental damage that can lead to health hazards, job losses, and existential threats to future generations. 

The organization Stop the AI Race, led by activist and former AI researcher Michaël Trazzi, organized the rally. Trazzi, who previously staged a hunger strike outside Google DeepMind in London, led the crowd in chanting against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. His organization advocates for a global agreement to pause larger frontier training runs, pushing teams instead toward narrow AI applications and alignment research. While tech companies have not responded directly, the group frequently points to a past interview where DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis supported a collective pause if the whole world agreed, envisioning a collaborative, international research body similar to CERN. 

Diverse participants joined the march, including Duncan Haldane, a startup CEO who uses AI to design circuit boards but views the technology as an existential threat to humanity. Aleesa Carbo, an AI researcher with the Machine Learning Alignment and Theory Scholars fellowship, stated that even the people who train these models do not fully understand these dark boxes. Former San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston also criticized tech CEOs for exploiting the city, noting that public pushback is growing across California. He highlighted Monterey Park voters permanently banning data centers, and residents in Pittsburg protesting massive digital infrastructure projects. Longtime residents like Kathe Burick expressed hope regarding the increased turnout, urging local supervisors to regulate or shut down irresponsible operations before society loses control.