An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: On a side street outside the headquarters of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology in the center of London on Monday, 20 or so protesters are getting their chants in order. "What do we want? Safe AI! When do we want it?" The protesters hesitate. "Later?" someone offers. The group of mostly young men huddle for a moment before breaking into a new chant. "What do we want? Pause AI! When do we want it? Now!" These protesters are part of Pause AI, a group of activists petitioning for companies to pause development of large AI models which they fear could pose a risk to the future of humanity. Other PauseAI protests are taking place across the globe: In San Francisco, New York, Berlin, Rome, Ottawa, and ahandful of other cities. Their aim is to grab the attention of voters and politicians ahead of the AI Seoul Summit -- a follow-up to the AI Safety Summit held in the UK in November 2023. But the loosely organized group of protesters itself is still figuring out exactly the best way to communicate its message.
"The Summit didn't actually lead to meaningful regulations," says Joep Meindertsma, the founder of PauseAI. The attendees at the conference agreed to the "Bletchley Declaration," but that agreement doesn't mean much, Meindertsma says. "It's only a small first step, and what we need are binding international treaties." [...] There is also the question of how PauseAI should achieve its aims. On the group's Discord, some members discussed the idea of staging sit-ins at the headquarters of AI developers. OpenAI, in particular, has become a focal point of AI protests. In February, Pause AI protests gathered in front of OpenAI'sSan Francisco offices, after the company changed its usage policies to remove a ban on military and warfare applications for its products. Would it be too disruptive if protests staged sit-ins or chained themselves to the doors of AI developers, one member of the Discord asked. "Probably not. We do what we have to, in the end, for a future with humanity, while we still can." [...]
Director of Pause AI US, Holly Elmore, wants the movement to be a "broad church" that includes artists, writers, and copyright owners whose livelihoods are put at risk from AI systems that can mimic creative works. "I'm a utilitarian. I'm thinking about the consequences ultimately, but the injustice that really drives me to do this kind of activism is the lack of consent" from companies producing AI models, she says. "We don't have to choose which AI harm is the most important when we're talking about pausing as a solution. Pause is the only solution that addresses all of them." [Joseph Miller, the organizer of PauseAI's protest in London] echoed this point. He says he's spoken to artists whose livelihoods have been impacted by the growth of AI art generators. "These are problems that are real today, and are signs of much more dangerous things to come." One of the London protesters, Gideon Futerman, has a stack of leaflets he's attempting to hand out to civil servants leaving the building opposite. He has been protesting with the group since last year. "The idea of a pause being possible has really taken root since then," he says. According to Wired, the leaders of Pause AI said they were not considering sit-ins or encampments near AI offices at this time. "Our tactics and our methods are actually very moderate," says Elmore. "I want to be the moderate base for a lot of organizations in this space. I'm sure we would never condone violence. I also want Pause AI to go further than that and just be very trustworthy."
Meindertsma agrees, saying that more disruptive action isn't justified at the moment. "I truly hope that we don't need to take other actions. I don't expect that we'll need to. I don't feel like I'm the type of person to lead a movement that isn't completely legal."
Slashdotters, what is the most effective way to protest AI development? Is the AI genie out of the bottle? Curious to hear your thoughts
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