I attended some PauseAI UK protests a year or two ago and wanted to share my worries and experience attending my first AI protests. I felt reluctant but was glad I went.
I was worried that attendees would be angry or radical or extreme, that it would be loud, and that nuanced communication would be sidelined in favour of emotional persuasiveness. Relatedly, a part of me was worried what others would think of me if they thought of me as ‘the kind of person that goes to protests’. And something about me fighting for proposals that I wasn’t myself sure about.
But it seemed like it would be impactful to attend and could be valuable for me. So I went, and I even made and brought a sign!
In actual fact, I was happy to meet other people that I thought were nuanced thinkers and whose work I respected. I enjoyed talking to like-minded people. I liked flyering and I was able to have fine-grained discussions with a range of passers by and other protesters.
It was at times loud or featured talking points that I felt simplified an issue in a way that I didn’t like, but overall it seemed like a good way to hang out on a Saturday and contribute to something important to me.
I attended some PauseAI UK protests a year or two ago and wanted to share my worries and experience attending my first AI protests. I felt reluctant but was glad I went.
I was worried that attendees would be angry or radical or extreme, that it would be loud, and that nuanced communication would be sidelined in favour of emotional persuasiveness. Relatedly, a part of me was worried what others would think of me if they thought of me as ‘the kind of person that goes to protests’. And something about me fighting for proposals that I wasn’t myself sure about.
But it seemed like it would be impactful to attend and could be valuable for me. So I went, and I even made and brought a sign!
In actual fact, I was happy to meet other people that I thought were nuanced thinkers and whose work I respected. I enjoyed talking to like-minded people. I liked flyering and I was able to have fine-grained discussions with a range of passers by and other protesters.
It was at times loud or featured talking points that I felt simplified an issue in a way that I didn’t like, but overall it seemed like a good way to hang out on a Saturday and contribute to something important to me.