Central London, United Kingdom – Up to 500 people are marching through Central London in what organisers describe as the UK’s first ever AI March, titled “March Against the Machines.” It is understood to be the largest AI protest globally to date.

The demonstration was organised by a coalition including Pull the Plug, Pause AI, Mad Youth Organise, Blaksox, and Assemble. The groups are demanding that AI technology be made safe and placed under democratic public control.

At 12:00PM, hundreds gathered outside the Pentonville Road offices of OpenAI in London. By 12:30, they began marching through Kings Cross, stopping at the offices of Deep Mind, Meta, and Google.

Pull the Plug is set to host an open call on its website on Wednesday evening to invite others to join and to outline what comes next.

Campaigners point to polling showing that 84% of British people fear the government will prioritise partnerships with large technology companies over the public interest when regulating AI.

Pull The Plug is urging the UK government to support binding Citizens’ Assemblies on AI and implement their decisions. Pause AI is calling for stronger safeguards on advanced AI and a global pause on frontier research until powerful systems can be built safely.

Harry Atkinson, a 37 year old film maker from London, said: “We all want useful new technology, but AI is chaotic and unstable. It is being forced upon us without the basic safety measures. A sandwich in the supermarket is more regulated than AI.”

He added: “Labour needs to stop fawning over US tech companies and listen to what its own people want. If AI has huge consequences for our economy, our society, and our lives, then why aren’t we being asked about it?”

Joseph Miller of Pause AI said: “Companies and countries are racing to create superhuman AI that will be able to dominate and destroy humanity. All the AI CEOs know how dangerous this is, but no company can stop the race by themselves. We need governments to coordinate an international Pause on frontier AI development. And we need the CEOs to be honest about the danger we are in and support the idea of a Pause, as Demis Hassibis, CEO of Google DeepMind has already done.”

Following the march, protesters are set to hold a People’s Assembly to discuss their concerns and what action they want from the UK government.

On the same day, coordinated protests are taking place at data centres and government buildings across the UK and Germany. In Berlin, a midday demonstration outside the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is organised by FAIrness Now. In East London, communities are staging the Havering Day of Action to Stop Dirty Data Centres at the site of the proposed Havering Data Centre.

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