Effective Altruists Launch $2,000-Per-Week Anti-AI Campaign

An effective altruism-linked organization, Irreplaceable, has launched an anti-AI campaign, recruiting student protest leaders to coordinate walkouts at over 100 colleges in October. The goal is to demand new regulations on the AI industry that would benefit the effective altruism agenda.

The campaign, which pays $2,000 per week for organizers, claims that AI should be paused and placed under public control, allowing for further policy changes. Irreplaceable's strategy involves high-volume outreach, forging political partnerships, and running a digital creator program to advocate for regulation.

A skeptic has called the campaign an 'astroturfing' effort, suggesting that it is not genuinely grassroots but rather a coordinated effort to influence government policy. Effective altruism has strong historical ties to the crypto industry, particularly through its connections to FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.