Boston-Area Students Walk Out of Class, Rally at State House for AI Oversight

Students at Boston-area colleges walked out of class Tuesday and rallied outside the Massachusetts State House as part of a nationwide protest calling for stronger public oversight of artificial intelligence, Boston 25 News reported.

The walkout was organized nationally by Irreplaceable, a grassroots organization that is seeking federal legislation and is calling for a "freeze" on AI development until the technology's risks are better understood, according to Boston.com and GBH News. The Boston event was sponsored by the Massachusetts AI Action Network, which was co-founded by lead organizer Ari Rosenthal, GBH reported.

Organizers said students from 10 Massachusetts colleges and universities planned to participate, including Harvard University, MIT, Boston University and Northeastern University, Boston.com reported. GBH reported that students from Wellesley College, the University of Massachusetts and Tufts University were also expected, along with workers and professors. The rally was scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. outside the State House.

At Northeastern, some students walked out of class, Boston 25 reported. "I think it should be more regulated on both sides, people using it and people being blamed to use it. It's not going to help in the long run," Northeastern student Nian Farrell-Roman told the station.

Organizer David Green told Boston 25 that the group is calling for a freeze on AI development until stronger safety measures and public oversight are in place. Organizers warned that the technology is advancing faster than policymakers can address concerns about jobs, privacy and safety, the station reported.

"I think there's increasingly political will, increasing interest when you look at polling, you see that people are increasingly concerned about the impact of AI on all of our lives and the risk that it poses," Green said. "I think that politicians need to listen to that."

Massachusetts Teachers Association President Matt Bach also spoke. "Our demands are educators, not ed-tech. Schools, not screens. Authentic, not artificial," he said, according to Boston 25.

Rosenthal told GBH that student concerns center on employment and the broader future. "It's a bunch of people who are saying, 'Hey, our futures are changing because of how AI is being developed, and it's being developed incredibly irresponsibly,'" he said. "When I talk to students, their concerns are about finding jobs after college, and also if there will be a society and democracy when they graduate."

"Students have been told their whole lives that college education will give them job security, and now not only are they seeing that they don't have job security, but a lot of them are questioning what the future looks like with this technology," Rosenthal told Boston.com.

The walkout came more than a month after an AI researcher resigned from Anthropic and accused that company and OpenAI of acting irresponsibly, GBH reported. The researcher, Jacob Coxon, who had worked at both companies, wrote on X that he resigned out of concern that the companies are "gambling with our lives," according to GBH. Rosenthal said the post was one of the catalysts for the walkout.

"It is a black box," Rosenthal told GBH. "We do not know how to safely develop these technologies where we know exactly how it will act. No matter what industry you put that into, if you aren't doing that responsibly and safely, you're going to have problems."

Rosenthal said the group wants to raise awareness of how AI intersects with other issues, including children's safety, data privacy and climate change, and hopes to put pressure on the Massachusetts Legislature to regulate the technology, GBH reported. Speakers at the State House were expected to call on elected officials to pass legislation regulating AI, according to Boston.com.

Gov. Maura Healey last month called for AI safety language and transparency protections in the Mass Wins Act that would encourage "independent safety evaluations and stronger reporting requirements for most powerful AI models," GBH reported. Rosenthal said residents, labor groups and safety groups would like more transparency about the state's plans to use AI in government systems.

GBH said it had contacted industry groups representing the technology and software sector for comment on the walkout. Irreplaceable's organizers said on the event's website that "we the people deserve a say, a stake, and basic safety in the future of this dangerous, powerful technology," according to GBH.

Organizers told Boston 25 that they want the effort to extend beyond a single day and are calling for the public to have a meaningful role in setting limits on AI development.