Hundreds of People Just Marched Through London Screaming at AI Companies and Honestly? The Signs Were Incredible

Something wild happened in London this weekend. Hundreds of protesters marched right through King's Cross, the neighborhood where OpenAI, Meta, and Google DeepMind all have their UK headquarters, chanting "Pull the plug! Stop the slop!"

The march was organized by two activist groups called Pause AI and Pull the Plug, and they're calling it the largest anti-AI protest ever. And the signs? Chef's kiss. One woman wore a giant billboard on her head that read "WHO WILL BE WHOSE TOOL?" with the Os cut out as eye holes. Others carried signs saying "Pause before there's cause," "EXTINCTION=BAD," and my personal favorite: "Demis the Menace" (a shot at Google DeepMind's CEO Demis Hassabis).

An older man wearing a sandwich board that said "AI? Over my dead body" told MIT Technology Review he was worried about mass unemployment: "The devil finds work for idle hands," he said.

What's interesting is how fast this movement has grown. Back in May 2023, only two or three people showed up to heckle Sam Altman at a London event. By last year, a few dozen turned out. Now it's hundreds. The organizers say they're growing "on a somewhat exponential" curve, which is ironic given what they're protesting.

Whether you agree with them or not, the fact that regular people are taking to the streets over AI says something about where we are right now.

As reported by MIT Technology Review.

Source: MIT Technology Review