SF protesters marched to demand AI tech rules, CEOs were unfazed | Latest Tech News
AI critics took to San Francisco streets Thursday to call for motion on the quickly advancing technology, but their protest drew only a small crowd as some tech CEOs shrugged off rising alarm about creepy incidents involving rogue brokers.
A few dozen protesters marched from OpenAI’s headquarters in San Francisco to Anthropic — adjoining to the large Dreamforce tech convention that drew more than 40,000 attendees this week — before making their approach to City Hall to demand local officers declare an emergency over AI.
“I was pretty scared about the possibility of extinction for awhile,” said Hunter Glenn, an organizer with Stop the AI Race.
Protestors march during an anti-AI protest in San Francisco, California, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Minh Connors for CA Post
Elliot Callender holds an American flag during an anti-AI protest outdoors the OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, California, Thursday, September 17, 2026. Minh Connors for CA Post
The protesters called upon workers at OpenAI and Anthropic, both based in San Francisco, to stop their jobs and work in the direction of internationally agreed-upon limits on the technology as researchers raise issues about the likelihood of runaway AI brokers wreaking havoc on society.
Glenn said he sees AI security as a bipartisan issue and hopes people around President Donald Trump can persuade him to create an worldwide AI treaty forward of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s deliberate go to to Washington, DC on Sept. 24.
Michaël Trazzi speaks during an anti-AI protest outdoors the Anthropic location at 500 Howard St. in San Francisco, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Minh Connors for CA Post
Cyrus Gertz chants during an anti-AI protest in San Francisco, California, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Minh Connors for CA Post
“Five days ago, all the big US labs and Bernie Sanders got together to call for a treaty,” he said.
“We want all of humanity to be safe,” Glenn added.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff sits for a dialog with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at Salesforce’s Dreamforce convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. Getty Images
Concerns about quickly advancing AI technology exploded to the forefront this month when Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at Anthropic at OpenAI, stop his position over fears that the tech may break away of human control and finally trigger exctinction.
Jacob Coxon, a researcher who left his place at Anthropic over issues AI firms aren’t appearing responsibly, says people are ‘begging’ for regulation. Fox News
Fellow AI researchers echoed his fears, citing incidents such as a rogue OpenAI agent hacking into rival Hugging Face without human prompting.
Bilal Chughtai, another top researcher previously with Google’s DeepMind, wrote Monday of his profound issues about the technology’s trajectory.
“I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome,” Chughtai wrote in posts on X and LinkedIn.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang departs after participating in the Dreamforce 2026 summit in San Francisco, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. REUTERS
Others, however, have dismissed those issues as alarmist.
The tech’s defenders embrace NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who argued that guardrails ought to come from the businesses instead of regulators.
“It’s a false choice,” Huang told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at Dreamforce Wednesday, referring to development pace versus security. “You could definitely have both at the same time.”
Anti-AI protestors make their presence recognized outdoors the Dreamforce convention in San Francisco, California, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Minh Connors for CA Post
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed on X that AI labs have an “incentive” to keep their tech protected, also citing legal responsibility for harms.
“Every lab has the responsibility and incentive to move at the pace required to train its models safely, and the ability to take its own actions to ensure that happens,” he wrote.
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