Hundreds of protesters march to OpenAI and Anthropic offices, say they want AI race to stop now

Nearly 200 AI safety activists protested in San Francisco, urging major AI companies to pause frontier AI development over growing existential risks and safety concerns.

San Francisco, widely known as a global hub for technology and innovation, recently witnessed protests from AI safety groups demanding a pause on frontier AI development to mitigate potential existential risks. Nearly 200 protesters marched under the banner “Stop the AI Race.” The demonstration began outside the headquarters of Anthropic before moving to the offices of OpenAI and xAI.

According to the event sign-up page, the group demanded that CEOs of major AI companies publicly commit to pausing AI development provided every other AI lab agrees to do the same. The protesters came from different organisations such as Pause AI and QuitGPT. The participants included academics and former AI lab employees.

Organisers argued that AI labs are violating safety promises and increasing the risk of human extinction by accelerating AI development. As per the event page, the protest was triggered by claims that Anthropic dropped its commitment in February to pause development if its AI became too dangerous. It also pointed to OpenAI weakening its safety commitments as it restructures into a for-profit corporation.

However, leading AI companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI did not issue public statements directly responding to the weekend demonstrations. People marching from Anthropic to OpenAI to xAI demanding pause on AI race

Ever since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the general public in 2022, several experts have raised concerns about the technology’s growing capabilities. Among them is Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI.”

He previously highlighted three kinds of harm that artificial intelligence could cause.