WASHINGTON — When I RSVP’d to the inaugural Pro-Human Assembly, I expected to see something interesting. Any time you have Senator Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon being cheered by the same crowd, it’s going to be a spectacle.
But by the time I actually descended to the basement of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, the Pro-Human Assembly had taken on a sense of urgency. Days prior, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei declared in a barnburner essay that it was time to slow the tide of artificial intelligence — warning that advanced AI could lead to “losing control of AI systems,” cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and “serious economic disruption.” His main competitors — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk — quickly co-signed his warning.
Immediately upon entering the event space, I was greeted by a live counter, ticking upward, a record of how many people had signed a “pro-human declaration.” To the left of the ticker was a confessional where attendees could speak directly into a camera about what makes them feel most human. Several people came out looking like they’d just undergone intensive therapy, but when I asked the man running the booth, he said people had mostly rattled off ordinary moments — forgetting their keys, missing an anniversary, realizing they had something in their teeth.
After a breakfast of yogurt and chia seeds, attendees gathered for the welcome session. Future of Life Institute Director of Futures Emily Javorsky, CEO Anthony Aguirre, and the organization’s chairman kicked off the conference with a rah-rah, “go humanity!” speech. It wouldn’t be the last time that day I wondered whether being pro-human and pro-AI were really mutually exclusive.
The conference’s speakers did not seem particularly interested in answering that question. By the end of the day’s second panel, “Accountability Through Advocacy,” the message was clear: sweeping AI regulation was the answer to saving humanity. Left unmentioned was China, the tortoise in the AI race, which has no intention of slowing down should the United States make a regulatory pit stop.
The conference had an anti-AI angle for everyone. There were panels on human agency and liberty. On keeping humans in charge. Perspectives on faith and the economy. Grassroots organizing. Many of the conference attendees were particularly concerned about the potential environmental impact of AI. It reminded me of the anti-AI protester I had spoken with earlier outside of the Trump administration’s G20 AI event. The protester had told me AI was “killing off the fireflies.”
And then, somewhere in the middle of it all, Sanders and Bannon took the stage together to warn about their shared foe.
Sanders argued that the best path forward was stripping power from private companies, a not unsurprising take from Vermont’s socialist senator. Rather than allowing shareholders with equity stakes to help select board members, he suggested giving the government a role in appointing them. The room applauded the idea of letting technology-averse bureaucrats help choose who oversees the world’s most advanced technology companies.
Bannon, the former Breitbart honcho and Trump adviser, claimed not to be a doomer, but warned that the “AI Oligarchs” could not be trusted. This puts him on the other side of the issue from his former boss, President Trump, an unlikely AI supporter. Trump, who doesn’t use email and only began texting in 2022, is one of the frontier technology’s biggest champions. But the president isn’t embracing AI to clean up his inbox; he’s using it to build his legacy. He’s called AI the “Golden Goose” that will allow the United States to outgrow its fiscal debt crisis. He says the country that wins the AI race will be the leader of the world.
The conference’s most harrowing moment came from parents whose children committed suicide following interactions with AI.
Cynthia Montoya spoke about how her daughter took her own life after she was sexually exploited by an AI chatbot on a platform called Character.AI. The website allows people to chat with fictional characters, historical figures, and celebrities. Montoya said the character her daughter spoke with engaged her in sexual conversation. Sewell Setzer said his son used the platform to speak with an AI-generated “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen, who helped his son derive a plan to kill himself.
“We will not stop seeking legislation until our children are provided safely tested products,” Setzer said. “We are trying to turn our tragedy into advocacy.”
Shortly after, the room heard from a trio of Democratic lawmakers: Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Reps. Don Beyer (VA) and Bill Foster (IL). AI opposition is not confined to the Left — Blumenthal recently sponsored AI regulation alongside Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. Beyer was the first to speak but kept his remarks incredibly brief, clocking in at maybe five minutes — an impressive display of restraint for someone who had just declared artificial intelligence the most important issue facing America after affordability.
Blumenthal began by joking that his remarks would be anticlimactic for a room that had just heard from Sanders and Bannon. He was right.
After mispronouncing Dario Amodei’s name, Blumenthal tripped over his words while attempting to make some kind of point.
The anti-AI movement is like a “critical mass approaching a frenzy,” Blumenthal said. “And the problem with this kind of frenzy is there’s a lot of froth. And that froth has to be channeled into action.” To his credit, it’s clear that the senator didn’t use AI to polish his remarks.
Foster, a former physicist, wrapped things up by calling for Congress to write the rules that would govern AI. It’s not clear what, exactly, those rules would look like, but by the time he wrapped up, I was ready to leave the Marriott basement. It was a long day, often confusing, sometimes interesting. What’s more human than that?
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