Thanks! I'm happy with the traction we've got with politicians.

Yes we need to raise enough funding to be self-sustaining at around £100k/year starting at the end of this month.

Since that post went up, we've raised about £5k from generous individuals.

If you're still fundraising I'd recommend a short comment in here. 

Posted an updated there 🙏

PauseAI UK

Announcements:

• In the past year PauseAI UK has delivered two conferences, written an open letter signed by 63 UK politicians, arranged a conference in the European Parliament, and co-organised the largest AI protest in the world. We now have a strong team, with Matilda da Rui joining as Deputy Director and several highly dedicated volunteers taking on substantial responsibility and launching their own local groups around the UK.
• The total cost for all of PauseAI UK’s staff and activities is currently around £100k per year. To date, PauseAI Global has paid all of PauseAI UK’s staff costs and other expenses. However, PauseAI is adopting a federated model in which national chapters operate as distinct legal entities and raise funding independently. Global is able to fund PauseAI UK until the end of Q2 2026. At the time of writing we have no runway beyond this and we are actively seeking funding to help us stay afloat.
  
  To see a detailed breakdown of our expenses and projected costs, take a look at our our Donor Prospectus. You can donate to PauseAI UK by visiting our donation page.

The next PauseAI UK protest will be (AFAIK) the first coalition protest between different AI activist groups, the main other group being Pull the Plug, a new organisation focused primarily on current AI harms. It will almost certainly be the largest protest focused exclusively on AI to date.

In my experience, the vast majority of people in AI safety are in favor of big-tent coalition protests on AI in theory. But when faced with the reality of working with other groups who don't emphasize existential risk, they have misgivings. So I'm curious what people here will think of this.

Personally I'm excited about the protest and I've found the organizers of Pull the Plug to be very sincere and good to work with, but I've also set things up so that the brands of PauseAI UK and Pull the Plug remain clearly distinct so that our messaging remains clearly focused on the risks of future AI. For example, we have a separate signup page and we have our own demands focused on decelerating frontier development.

Net negative

None / Negligible

Net positive

Poll: What effect have protests calling for a  pause / stop / deceleration on the development of AI had on the world?

a) Net positive
b) None / Negligible
c) Net negative

This poll will be used to resolve this prediction market.

Vote by agree reacting to one of my comments below. Only vote once!

FWIW I have personally said something close to “If I donate enough money to effective animal charities, I’ll save more animals than I would by going vegan. So, I don’t need to personally stop consuming animal products.”

And after reading this article, I still stand by that position.

 See ai-plans.com

Announcing PauseCon, the PauseAI conference.
Three days of workshops, panels, and discussions, culminating in our biggest protest to date.
Twitter: https://x.com/PauseAI/status/1915773746725474581
Apply now: https://pausecon.org