Stop AI

Stop AI is a grassroots activist organization founded in April 2024 by Sam Kirchner, Guido Reichstadter, and Remmelt Ellen, who met in the PauseAI Discord and broke away to form a more confrontational movement. The group is based in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area and describes itself as a coalition of everyday people using democratic and non-violent methods to disrupt what it calls the reckless development of destructive AI technology. Stop AI's primary demand is a permanent and enforceable global ban on the further development of frontier AI technology, including artificial general intelligence and artificial superintelligence. It also advocates for citizen oversight bodies to regulate or dismantle technologies threatening human rights, restrictions on autonomous weapons, and limits on surveillance technology. The organization became known for civil disobedience tactics including monthly protests outside OpenAI and Microsoft offices, blockading AI company entrances, and hunger strikes. In February 2025, several members including co-founders were arrested after chaining themselves to OpenAI's office doors. The group also served OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a legal subpoena at a public event. At its peak, Stop AI had approximately 200 activists in the Bay Area, with a core of five organizers. In late 2025, co-founder Sam Kirchner was expelled following a violent incident and subsequently went missing, prompting the organization to pause its monthly protest schedule. By October 2025, Matthew Hall (known as Yakko) had been elected as the group's new leader through an internal vote. The organization stated plans to resume activities in 2026 with a revised, hope-focused messaging approach.