BOSTON — A college walkout brought demands for a pause in artificial intelligence development to the Massachusetts State House on Tuesday, as protesters joined a national campaign seeking tougher regulation and greater public control over the technology.
The Oct. 20 rally ran from 1 to 3 p.m. outside the State House. WCVB reported that dozens of students obstructed the building’s main entrance. Ahead of the demonstration, organizers said they expected students representing roughly 10 Massachusetts colleges, along with professors, workers and other supporters.
The national effort was organized by Irreplaceable, a grassroots group seeking federal legislation and a halt to AI development while its risks are more fully assessed. The local sponsor was the Massachusetts AI Action Network, co-founded by lead organizer Ari Rosenthal.
The protest connected concerns about employment after graduation with broader questions about who should guide the development of powerful AI systems. In interviews before the event, Rosenthal described students’ worries about whether their education would still provide a path to stable work and what rapidly advancing technology could mean for democracy.
Boston.com reported that organizers anticipated participation from Harvard and MIT, as well as Boston University and Northeastern. GBH also identified Wellesley, Tufts and the University of Massachusetts among the schools whose students were expected. Those advance reports described plans to participate, rather than a final accounting of attendance.
Calls for a public role
Rosenthal told Boston.com that decisions with consequences for society were being concentrated among a small group of technology executives. Organizers sought to bring together students, educators, parents, engineers and people working on policy to press for a larger public role.
The campaign’s concerns extended beyond the workplace. Rosenthal told GBH that the effort aimed to draw attention to connections between AI, privacy, children’s safety and climate change. He also questioned whether developers could reliably understand and control how their systems would behave.
National organizers said the demonstrations would feature accounts of how AI operating without sufficient regulation had affected work and communities. In Boston, speakers were expected to urge elected officials to put new legal safeguards in place, Boston.com reported.
Pressure on Beacon Hill
The local campaign also sought action from Massachusetts lawmakers. Rosenthal told GBH he wanted the walkout to build support for regulation and encourage greater transparency about the state’s use of AI.
In September, Gov. Maura Healey sought provisions in the Mass Wins Act addressing AI safety and transparency, GBH reported. Her proposal called for outside safety assessments and expanded reporting obligations for the most capable models. Separately, WCVB reported that a search of the Legislature’s website returned more than 250 AI-related results.
GBH said it had requested comment from organizations representing software and technology businesses for its advance report. The supplied coverage included no industry response to the demonstrators’ demands.
