SF protesters call for AI pause at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI as White House pushes national framework

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Dozens of protesters gathered outside Anthropic’s headquarters in San Francisco on Saturday, calling on major artificial intelligence companies to temporarily halt the development of frontier AI systems.

The group, Stop the AI Race, began its demonstration in front of Anthropic before moving on to the offices of OpenAI and xAI. Organizers said they want company CEOs to publicly commit to a conditional pause on advanced AI development.

“Once we have everyone agreeing on this conditional pause, I think we can enforce this pausing of AI,” said Michael Trazzi of Stop the AI Race.

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The group believes frontier AI poses significant risks.

“The reason we are pausing AI is because we believe that building AI, can automate AI research, and can self improve, like a danger to the human race, especially human extinction. It’s not only me and other researchers saying this, it’s the lab CEOs themselves that the risk is real,” Trazzi said.

The protest followed the White House’s release of an AI legislative framework intended to help nationalize AI policy. President Trump has encouraged Congress to strengthen protections for children while limiting liability for AI companies.

Tech expert Ahmed Banafa of San Jose State University compared the administration’s approach to longstanding legal protections for social media platforms.

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“It is the closest thing to section 230 that protected social media for years. Basically you can’t sue someone for posting something there,” Banafa said.

Banafa said the country is now dealing with the consequences of early social media regulation. “Now we’re dealing with the consequences because we were excited about how it was going to connect people, but there was no accountability for the platforms,” Banafa said.

State Senator Scott Wiener criticized the president’s approach to AI oversight. “He’s not interested in having smart public policy approach to AI where we promote and foster innovation while we assess and try to get ahead of some of the risk,” Wiener said.

Wiener has supported legislation requiring AI companies to publish safety protocols. He said California has “a huge role to play when it comes to AI governance and in helping ensure that this powerful technology is to the benefit of humanity.”

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Last year, the president signed an executive order barring states from enacting their own AI laws, with the White House pledging to develop a national regulatory standard.