San Francisco AI Protest Targets OpenAI, Anthropic, Google

On July 11, hundreds of activists marched through San Francisco to protest the rapid development of artificial intelligence by three Bay‑Area firms—OpenAI, Anthropic and Google’s DeepMind unit. Organized by the "Stop AI" coalition, the rally featured homemade signs such as "Quit GPT" and "Stop the AI Race," a slushie‑van nodding to the 7‑Eleven Slurpee promotion, and live music from the St. Gabriel’s Celestial Brass Band. Participants traveled from Sacramento, Los Angeles and Berkeley, with some arriving after long drives; one demonstrator even wore a Barney‑the‑Dinosaur costume to warn against a dinosaur‑like extinction scenario.

Protesters voiced concerns about job displacement, environmental impact of data‑center power use, and the potential loss of human control over increasingly capable AI systems. The march proceeded from OpenAI’s Mission Bay campus to Anthropic’s downtown office and ended at Google’s San Francisco office on the Embarcadero, ending with pizza for attendees. Police escorted the crowd and temporarily blocked streets. The targeted companies did not respond to requests for comment.