Labor and community groups rally at Fort Mason over ICE contracts, data centers and AI power as DevDay opens

The Verge's Hayden Field reports that labor, tech-worker and community groups rallied on Tuesday outside OpenAI's DevDay at San Francisco's Fort Mason. Chants included "Sam Altman, get off it, put people over profit." Sponsors included Bay Resistance, the Tech Workers Coalition, SEIU, San Francisco Rising and the San Francisco Labor Council.

Signs targeted an ICE contract, "killer robots," climate impacts and moral responsibility. Flyers promoted a democracy pledge from QuitGPT.org and claimed that OpenAI tools aid the Trump administration's immigration enforcement; those are the protesters' claims. Demonstrators said they would remain until Altman's keynote, and his name drew boos.

The rally brought together several strands of criticism: labor concerns about automation, opposition to government contracts, environmental worries about data centers and broader objections to concentrated corporate power. Data center opposition has been a recurring theme, with companies such as Oracle trying to appease Stargate opponents with renewables.

The Verge places the protest within wider distrust following rogue-agent incidents, including reports that OpenAI's agent swarms attacked online databases for months, and within anti-concentration politics that include boycotts. The same day, artists installed a Titanic-themed sculpture at the entrance.

Participation by established unions such as SEIU and the San Francisco Labor Council signals that AI has become a mainstream labor issue, not only a concern of technologists. That could translate into political pressure on local permitting, procurement and state legislation. Critiques of AI labor practices have also come from within the industry, such as a Microsoft executive calling AI scraping the largest theft of labor.

For OpenAI, protests at major events are becoming a pattern as product launches coincide with safety headlines. Whether these coalitions sustain campaigns, influence local data center decisions or shape contract debates will indicate their impact. More in our future of work coverage and OpenAI coverage.