Image Credit: VentureBeat / Michael Nunez

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the OpenAI office on Monday evening as employees were leaving work for the day, rallying against the company’s development of artificial intelligence.

The demonstration was organized by two groups — Pause AI and No AGI — who were openly pleading with OpenAI engineers to quit their work on advanced AI systems like the chatbot ChatGPT.

The collective’s message was clear from the onset: halt the development of artificial intelligence that could lead to a future where machines surpass human intelligence, known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), and refrain from any further military affiliations.

The event was organized in part as a response to OpenAI deleting language from its usage policy last month that prohibited using AI for military purposes. Days after the usage policy was altered, it was reported OpenAI took on the Pentagon as a client.