A week of "Dump Big Tech" protests

TL;DR: Protesters in the US popped up outside tech company headquarters, congressional offices, and data center sites this week as part of a movement dubbed “Dump Big Tech.” The demonstrators called for stricter AI regulations, an end to federal Big Tech partnerships, and energy and water usage caps for data centers.

What happened: Though it’s a big-tent movement that brings together many activist groups, all the demonstrations (there have been more than 20 so far) focused on the omni-cause that is AI.

Outside OpenAI’s Washington, DC, lobbying hub on Monday, more than 30 student protesters lambasted the company’s outsized influence on the US government. On the streets surrounding Palantir’s New York City headquarters on Wednesday, approximately 100 people condemned the company for licensing its facial recognition technology to ICE. On Thursday, near Sen. John Fetterman’s Philadelphia office, protesters called for greater regulation around Big Tech companies. And today, groups are demonstrating outside OpenAI’s office in Washington state and the offices of elected officials in Nevada.

Growing discontent: Numerous public opinion polls show that Americans aren’t happy with data centers, and facial recognition technology—from Flock’s cameras to Customs agents using surveillance tech to track their exes—is receiving significant backlash. This week’s protesters cited fear of the government’s Big Brother-esque technological powers.

“We know that Palantir is surveilling a lot of people. […] That’s a big fear, that a lot of our data and our identities [will] be tracked,” Jennifer, one of the protesters in NYC who declined to share her last name over safety concerns, told Tech Brew. “People are also seeing the ways in which their [electric] bills are going up, the way in which data centers keep popping up in our communities. None of this is actually helping us. It’s actually hurting us, making our bills higher, and then just making us feel unsafe.”

Alternative future: Rather than using AI for “evil,” as some protesters chanted outside Google’s NYC offices on Wednesday, a number of rallies imagined a world in which AI could “protect and take care” of humans.

“This technology should be used to make our lives better,” NYC Assemblymember Claire Valdez said at the rally outside Palantir’s office. “It should be used to shorten our working hours. It should be used to make our productivity actually pay us more. It should be used to tackle the real emergencies that we are facing right now, like climate change.”

Bottom line: AI will be on trial during the midterm elections in November, and both sides are gearing up for a fight. As Big Tech increases its political donations, grassroots movements aim to oust elected officials who accept Big Tech bucks. —TC