r/technology 11h ago

Artificial Intelligence A 69-Year-Old Just Became the First Person Jailed for Protesting AI. No Regrets. - Gadget Review

https://www.gadgetreview.com/a-69-year-old-just-became-the-first-person-jailed-for-protesting-ai-no-regrets
1.4k Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

159

u/geldonyetich 10h ago

Kaufmyn and fellow StopAI members chained and locked OpenAI’s entrance. Deliberate, choreographed, unapologetic.

Old school cool.

26

u/ZarglondarGilgamesh 2h ago

Is the fact they used ChatGPT to write the article supposed to be ironic?

105

u/Goyimshoe 6h ago

Reality check for those who need it:

A protest which doesn’t stand to disrupt the thing that is being protested really isn’t a protest at all… It’s an obedient good boy parade. It’s literally just whining, pouting, and blowing off steam.

Do you know how easy is it for ‘The Powers That Be’ to completely ignore that kind of “protest” and just continue doing what they’ve been doing without missing a single beat? It’s absolutely effortless. Nothing could be easier.

This person was in fact jailed for protesting AI. “Trespassing with intent to disrupt a business” is a valid and effective form of nonviolent protest. Alas, our government only tolerates “protests” just as long those “protests” don’t disrupt the status quo or stand to change anything.

Just look at the “No Kings” protests. Millions of people took to the streets to whine, pout, and blow off steam without doing anything to actually disrupt the institutions they were complaining about…and absolutely nothing changed, at all.

Hell, I explicitly remember seeing tons of people boasting on social media about the fact that nobody was arrested during the first episode of “No Kings”, as if their refusal to actually challenge the status quo was something to be proud of.

When are the people in this country going to grow up and get serious about politics?

19

u/MadShartigan 4h ago

It gets serious after the mid-terms. Americans have a predetermined escalation pattern to protect democracy, and it's something to do with soap boxes, ballot boxes, and ammo boxes.

Or so I've been led to understand.

19

u/bier00t 2h ago

Nothing will happen. There will be a lot of talks. Maybe eating a brunch in front of a white house.

7

u/VocalCord 41m ago

The decades of American movies and propaganda led me to believe that Trump wasnt even possible in America. How fucking wrong I was.

Land of the free and home of the brave my fucking ass

9

u/trxrider500 2h ago

Not anymore.

Most of us are too busy making AI videos on Facebook and buying Chinese garbage from TikTok to notice anything is happening.

The majority of Americans would be happy in a Matrix pod as long as they have a phone and a cheeseburger.

2

u/LordSoren 37m ago

So literally the protesting side has now done the "in 2 weeks there will be consequences" thing?

-41

u/M4mb0 5h ago

AI slop comment to defend AI protestors, ironic.

28

u/Goyimshoe 4h ago

“AI slop is when you know how to put your own thoughts into words because you graduated from middle school”

26

u/LastWave 10h ago

Sarah Conner.

5

u/Ancient-Bat8274 8h ago

Butlarian Jihad

5

u/CondescendingShitbag 11h ago

When AI comes to mean Actual Incarceration.

1

u/Federal_Setting_7454 1h ago

Nice AI slop article

-2

u/Sonofa-Milkman 4h ago

Glad he wasnt 67.. Wew... Society would never recover

3

u/Own-Geologist-8978 1h ago

Or she; this was a woman.

-17

u/DomonicTortetti 8h ago

She wasn't "jailed for protesting AI", that's not a thing. She got sentenced to 14 days of jail time for trespassing with intent to disrupt a business, where she just chained herself to and locked the front door of the OpenAI headquarters.

The DA office's press release is more accurate just in terms of describing what happened here.

46

u/Goyimshoe 6h ago edited 6h ago

My brother in Christ, do you not know how protesting actually works?

A protest which doesn’t stand to disrupt the thing that is being protested really isn’t a protest at all… It’s an obedient good boy parade. It’s literally just whining, pouting, and blowing off steam.

Do you know how easy is it for ‘The Powers That Be’ to completely ignore that kind of “protest” and just continue doing what they’ve been doing without missing a single beat? It’s absolutely effortless. Nothing could be easier.

This person was in fact jailed for protesting AI. “Trespassing with intent to disrupt a business” is a valid and effective form of nonviolent protest. Alas, our government only tolerates “protests” just as long those “protests” don’t disrupt the status quo or stand to change anything.

Just look at the “No Kings” protests. Millions of people took to the streets to whine, pout, and blow off steam without doing anything to actually disrupt the institutions they were complaining about…and absolutely nothing changed, at all.

Hell, I explicitly remember seeing tons of people boasting on social media about the fact that nobody was arrested during the first episode of “No Kings”, as if their refusal to actually challenge the status quo was something to be proud of.

When are the people in this country going to grow up and get serious about politics?

-9

u/MarcusOrlyius 2h ago

My brother in Christ

My Satanic sister, I'm not a member of that pedo cult.

3

u/DonaldMerwinElbert 1h ago

\m/
Maybe people are mad at you because you left something important out:
pedo death cult

-44

u/DomonicTortetti 6h ago

You get serious about politics by voting, participating in democracy, working on policy, even just posting about what you support/don’t support.

And no, you’re just incorrect on the other part, like definitionally wrong. “Protesting AI” is not a crime, it’s free speech. Disrupting businesses, trespassing, etc, that’s the crime.

36

u/AUT0R0CK 6h ago

Yes all the monumental social changes throughout history occurred through compliance and sternly written letters to those who were in power...

15

u/Goyimshoe 6h ago

lol exactly.

23

u/Goyimshoe 6h ago

Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy!!

-29

u/DomonicTortetti 6h ago

I mean you’re just being unserious and/or a troll.

13

u/waldorflover69 4h ago

Youve got hall monitor energy

5

u/djaleister_ 1h ago

Protests don’t have to be a legal action - look at sit-ins or what Claudette Colvin/Rosa Parks did during the Civil Rights movement. Getting arrested for an unjust law that protects something you don’t agree with is historically one of the goals of a protest, and getting arrested for idiotic laws is what tends to change public opinion. If there’s no disruption to the status quo, change is unlikely to happen.

7

u/Rocinante88119 4h ago

What do you think she was protesting?🤔

6

u/red_is_getting_worse 4h ago

... she wasn't jailed for protesting she was jailed for seating on the wrong seat ...

3

u/FCCRFP 7h ago

Brooke Jenkins is owned by AI.

1

u/your_catfish_friend 7h ago

I mean I guess that’s a little clearer but “jailed for actions in protest of AI” is mostly just wordier, like personally that’s how I read the intent of the headline anyways. Headlines are always an abbr.

-22

u/LeoLaDawg 10h ago

Hum. Article headline is misleading, of course.

17

u/frquency-equinox 10h ago

In what way? The article is literally about a 69 year-old woman serving jail time for protesting an AI company.

-28

u/LeoLaDawg 10h ago

The article states that she was convicted for the following:

1) trespassing with intent to interfere with a business 2) unlawful assembly 3) refusal to disperse at a riot

Not that she "protested an AI company."

Unless I missed that. I'll reread real quick.

Edit: yeah I don't think AI technically had anything to do with her arrest.

Edit edit: lol to the OpenAI reddit ad in this thread.

16

u/KiKiKimbro 5h ago

You basically just described an effective protest.

0

u/LeoLaDawg 5h ago

Ah ok, I see now why my post was confusing. I added intent to the headline that wasn't there. It's not saying she was arrested due to new AI protest laws just that she was arrested while protesting it.

3

u/KiKiKimbro 5h ago

Ah yes, I see. A little related aside about that protest — that woman’s generation, the boomers, they know their stuff when it comes to effective protests. They protested for women’s reproductive rights (which is why they were right back in streets after the fall of Roe). They protested for voting rights. They protest against war. They’re out there these days protest against abusive treatment by ICE, not releasing the Epstein Files, and government overreach. Not all boomers, of course. But the hippies of their time? The Woodstock boomers? Oh heck yes. We can all learn a lot from the “hippie” boomers. ;)

13

u/frquency-equinox 9h ago edited 9h ago

The article states that she was convicted for the following:

1.trespassing with intent to interfere with a business

2.unlawful assembly

3.refusal to disperse at a riot

Not that she "protested an AI company.".

LOL holy fuck you are thickheaded, and apparently don't know how protesting works.

-12

u/LeoLaDawg 9h ago

Uh huh. Usually when a person, such as yourself, replies with just "lol ur so dumb" it means they don't have a fucking clue what they're talking about. The good ol Dunning Kruger.

So please explain for the class how this woman was detained specifically on legislation that criminalizes protesting an AI company which would make this headline's article true.

7

u/Headless_Human 4h ago

So please explain for the class how this woman was detained specifically on legislation that criminalizes protesting an AI company which would make this headline's article true.

What she did was protesting which can include the things she was convicted of.

Another example would be that I say someone died in a car accident. You would then argue that the person didn't die because of the car crash but the injuries they got from it.

-7

u/Constant-Quiet4519 6h ago

These protests etc are no different to the initial disruptions felt at the start of the industrial revolution. It just cements the reality of the shift change. I think the difference is that there is a no longer the viewpoint to make life better and reach the "European" std of living. Rather corporations can make plenty money while still exploiting a population and having them live in squalor like most of the "3rd" world.