Workers, professors and students from colleges and universities across the Boston area plan a walkout on Tuesday as part of a nationwide effort to demand a freeze on AI development.
The demonstration is expected to include students from MIT, Harvard University, Northeastern University, Boston University, Wellesley College, the University of Massachusetts and Tufts University. They will gather outside of the Massachusetts State House, according to organizers.
“It’s a bunch of people who are saying, ‘Hey, our futures are changing because of how AI is being developed, and it’s being developed incredibly irresponsibly,’” said Ari Rosenthal, one of the lead organizers of the walkout. “I used to be a student organizer myself … but when I talk to students, their concerns are about finding jobs after college, and also if there will be a society and democracy when they graduate.”
The walkout comes more than one month after an AI researcher quit his job at Anthropic, accusing the company and its competitor, OpenAI, of acting irresponsibly, causing concern on social media about the rapid pace of AI’s development.
Jacob Coxon, who has worked as a researcher at both companies, said in a post on X that he resigned out of concern that Anthropic and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives.” He said that those building AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Rosenthal said Coxon’s social media post was one of the catalysts for the Oct. 20 walkout.
“The degree of worry for the mass existential risk and this extinction narrative — that number and certainty changes,” he said. “But the fact that that is a conversation of ‘how likely’ is enough for me to say that this needs to stop. There is no other technology or area within society where if there was this much risk that it would even be a debate.”
GBH News reached out to industry groups representing the technology and software sector for comment on the walkout, and will include any responses offered in response.
The nationwide walkouts are being sponsored by Irreplaceable, a national grassroots organization that is fighting big AI with the mission of winning federal legislation. The demonstration in Boston is sponsored by the Massachusetts AI Action Network, which was co-founded by Rosenthal.
Rosenthal said they’re looking to raise awareness about how AI intertwines with so many other issues, including children’s safety, data privacy and climate change.
“It is a black box,” he said. “We do not know how to safely develop these technologies where we know exactly how it will act. No matter what industry you put that into, if you aren’t doing that responsibly and safely, you’re going to have problems.”
Irreplaceable organizers say each demonstration will include speakers who will share testimonies about how unregulated AI has affected their lives, jobs and communities.
“With AI threatening our jobs, our safety, and our democracy, now is the time for a people’s movement to ensure all of us — not just a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires — have the say we deserve in our future,” organizers said on the event’s website. “Because we the people deserve a say, a stake, and basic safety in the future of this dangerous, powerful technology.”
Rosenthal said he hopes the walkout can raise awareness about the rapid development of AI while also continuing the momentum around the movement. At the same time, he hopes it can put pressure on the Massachusetts legislature to regulate AI.
Last month, Gov. Maura Healey called for AI safety language and transparency protections in the Mass Wins Act that would encourage “independent safety evaluations and stronger reporting requirements for most powerful AI models.”
“She is working to have Massachusetts be one of the first states to adopt OpenAI and AI within governmental systems, and that’s a big deal,” he said. “I think there are a lot of labor groups, safety groups, and citizens in general who would like to know more about what that looks like. Transparency around that is also something I hope she is encouraged to do.”
