Protesters Rally Outside OpenAI’s DevDay Over ICE Contracts and AI Industry Power
More than a dozen groups, including Bay Resistance and the Tech Workers Coalition, rallied at Fort Mason in San Francisco on September 29, 2026. Protesters opposed OpenAI’s ICE and military contracts, chanting “People over AI” and “Drop the ICE contract.”
OpenAI’s annual DevDay conference in San Francisco opened Tuesday, September 29, 2026, with protests outside the venue at Fort Mason, where demonstrators chanted, distributed flyers, and carried signs opposing the company’s government contracts and the AI industry’s broader influence.
More than a dozen organizations co-sponsored the rally, including Bay Resistance, the Tech Workers Coalition, the Service Employees International Union, San Francisco Rising, and the San Francisco Labor Council. Protesters dressed in cardboard robot costumes waved cardboard scythes, while signs read “No killer robots for ICE,” “People over AI,” “Where is your moral codex?” and “No climate destruction.” A large orange sign declared “Drop the ICE contract.”
Chants included “OpenAI, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” and “Not another sequence, not another line, no more coding for ICE crimes.” At one point, someone with a loudspeaker addressed OpenAI employees directly, leading the crowd in a song urging them to reconsider their work. A protest leader said the group would remain until CEO Sam Altman arrived for the opening keynote; when his name was mentioned, it was met with booing.
Flyers distributed at the event called on attendees to “sign the democracy pledge & end ICE + military contracts” and linked to QuitGPT.org. One flyer alleged that “OpenAI is building tools for Trump & ICE violence while top executives are helping bankroll MAGA’s political power.” Another flyer depicted “safe distances” from data centers, suggesting the only safe distance exceeds 100 miles.
The demonstration reflects wider opposition to power concentration in the AI industry and the absence of government regulation. It comes amid a period of declining public trust in AI companies, which have recently faced scrutiny over hacks attributed to “rogue” systems that accessed competitors’ networks and personal data.