A 69-year-old Berkeley activist, Wynd Kaufmyn, was jailed after a jury convicted her for blocking OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters in a 2025 protest against artificial superintelligence, marking what supporters say is the first U.S. incarceration tied to anti-AI activism. San Francisco’s district attorney said the verdict underscores limits on protests that endanger public safety, while Kaufmyn framed her actions as a necessity amid mounting warnings from researchers and political figures about runaway AI risks. The case highlights rising tensions as frontier labs pursue more capable systems and eye colossal valuations, even as Washington and Beijing vie for leadership and regulators struggle to keep pace. UC Berkeley’s Stuart Russell testified that current deployments pose unacceptable risks absent rigorous safety guarantees, while Kaufmyn urged tech leaders to “regain your humanity” and called for a global halt to the race toward superintelligence.
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