Student activists occupied the lobby of a Washington, DC building housing OpenAI’s public lobbying office on Monday afternoon, resulting in 13 arrests. Some students carried signs reading, “OpenAI bought my Senator.”
Futurism reports that more than 30 demonstrators gathered inside the Gallup Building, unfurling a large banner that read “Stop Stealing Our Future” alongside signs stating “OpenAI bought my Senator.” The occupation lasted roughly two hours before police entered the lobby and arrested 13 people.
An incident report obtained from the Metropolitan Police Department states that the 13 individuals were arrested for “unlawful entry.” According to the report, police split the group after detaining them, sending seven to the First District Station, four to the Second District, and two to the Third District for processing. The identities and current whereabouts of those arrested have not been made public.
The protest was organized jointly by the climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement and the anti-AI organization QuitGPT. In a joint statement shared with Futurism, the groups said Monday’s demonstration is part of a broader campaign spanning more than 20 states throughout August, calling on politicians to “Dump Big Tech.”
Student organizer Raya Gupta, who took part in the protest, said in the statement, “my friends chose to risk arrest to bring the fight to OpenAI.”
“Our generation doesn’t have any guarantees about whether we’ll have jobs after college, or whether there will be clean drinking water for all of us or whether people will have any power left in politics since our elections keep getting bought by Big Tech,” Gupta said. “We all believe that not taking action now, as the scales slide between the people and the billionaires, puts our future in great jeopardy.”
The demonstration adds to a growing pattern of arrests connected to protests over artificial intelligence across the United States. People have been detained at town hall meetings opposing data center construction and during occupations of federal offices tied to AI-based immigration software.
Even as public frustration with AI companies grows, lawmakers from both major political parties have continued to accept lobbying efforts from the tech industry. OpenAI’s Washington office opened recently as one of the company’s affiliated super PACs has put more than $140 million toward the coming midterm elections, aiming to shape AI regulation at the federal level.
Opposition to leftist AI giants and their data centers crosses the political divide. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at Futurism here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.