Stop AI

Like PauseAI, Stop AI protests the development of superintelligent AI. Unlike PauseAI, Stop AI uses disruptive tactics like blocking entrances to OpenAI offices and blocking traffic.

This is a more high-variance strategy. I find it plausible that Stop AI’s tactics are especially effective, but also likely that its tactics will backfire and decrease public support. So in the absence of some degree of supporting evidence, I’m inclined not to support Stop AI.

Stop AI’s proposal seems overreaching (it wants to permanently ban AGI development) and it makes weak arguments.

From listening to an interview, I get the impression that the Stop AI founders aren’t appropriately outcome-oriented and don’t have a well-formulated theory of change. In the interview, they would offer reasoning for why they took a particular action and then when the interviewer would point out how that justification doesn’t explain their behavior, they would switch to a different explanation. An example (paraphrased):

Stop AI: We blocked an entrance to OpenAI’s office to make it harder for employees to build AGI. We feel that this is necessary to stop OpenAI from killing everyone.

Interviewer: Then why did you block traffic, since that affects innocent bystanders, not the people building AGI?

Stop AI: We need to block traffic to raise awareness.

This pattern occurred a few times. They have reasonable concerns about the dangers of AI, but they don’t seem to have a good justification for why disruptive protests are the best way to handle those concerns.

(I can see an argument for blocking entrances to AI company offices, but I think the argument for blocking traffic is much weaker.)

In short, Stop AI is spiritually similar to PauseAI but with worse reasoning, worse public materials, and worse tactics.