Over 200 people joined ‘Stop the A.I. race’—an anti A.I. movement led by activist Michael Trazzi—as they marched towards Open AI and DeepMind offices on San Francisco’s fourth street to demand regulation of AI and halt its progress at its current level, SF Chronicle reported.Over 200 protesters marched to OpenAI and Google DeepMind offices, calling for stricter AI. (Pexel/Representative image) (Pexel)Protestors carried posters like “stop slop,” “it’s not too late to regulate” and “in a race off a cliff no one wins,” marching from offices of OpenAI to Anthropic and Google DeepMind, demanding that their CEOs arrest the further development of the trading models of LLMs, SF chronicle reported.AI protest in San FranciscoAccording to the San Francisco Chronicle, the demonstration drew a diverse crowd, including university students, AI industry professionals and longtime San Francisco residents, many of whom said they wanted to raise public awareness about the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Organisers argued that greater public scrutiny could push AI companies to adopt more responsible practices. As protesters marched through downtown San Francisco, onlookers gathered along sidewalks, restaurant patios and apartment balconies, with many stopping to record the procession on their phones.Also read: Apple set to overtake Google as world's second-most valuable company: What's driving the surge?Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Aleesa Carbo, a student at Johns Hopkins University and an AI researcher, said public demonstrations alone may not be enough to drive change, but they can encourage broader civic engagement. She said increasing awareness could motivate people to contact elected representatives and urge both governments and technology firms to address concerns surrounding AI development.AI safety concernsCarbo, who is part of the Machine Learning Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) fellowship—a programme known for producing AI safety researchers and professionals who go on to work at firms such as Anthropic or launch AI-focused startups—said her own work has increasingly shifted towards AI safety.While she supports the technology’s potential, she expressed concern over the pace at which companies are advancing increasingly powerful systems. She told the San Francisco Chronicle that even researchers developing these models do not fully understand how they function, making the rapid race to deploy them a cause for concern.Michael Trazzi demands AI rulesThe San Francisco Chronicle reported that protest organiser Trazzi, who led chants targeting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei during the rally, described the situation as an urgent global challenge. Addressing demonstrators, he argued that meaningful progress would require companies to collectively slow the competitive race to build more advanced AI systems.According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Trazzi’s organisation is calling for an international agreement to temporarily halt the development of increasingly powerful frontier AI models, including those being developed in China. The proposal would allow existing AI systems to remain in use while pausing the training of larger, more capable models. Instead, researchers currently focused on expanding AI capabilities would be encouraged to shift their efforts towards developing narrower AI applications and improving AI alignment and safety.