Protesters Against AI Militarization Rally at Scale AI in San Francisco

More than 50 protesters rallied outside a San Francisco AI company on Wednesday afternoon against Silicon Valley’s growing involvement in war and global conflict.

“No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air! U.S. out of everywhere!” the protesters chanted.

Their target, Scale AI, landed a multimillion-dollar contract with the Defense Department this year to prototype Thunderforge, a project designed to integrate AI agents into military planning and operations. The activists further claim that Scale AI profits from exploiting low-wage data workers.

But the protesters argue Scale AI is just one of many AI companies, including Palantir, Anduril and SpaceX, that are increasingly focused on profiting from U.S. imperialism around the world, from “Palestine to the Philippines.”

Much of their ire is particularly focused on Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Palantir and a key force behind many of the companies expanding into government contracts.

Thiel has long championed the idea that Silicon Valley should align more closely with U.S. national interests. “A.I. is a military technology, or at least it’s a dual-use technology,” he said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in 2019, according to Fox News.

“No to billionaire war profiteering. No to tech-powered militarization. And no to the normalization of AI-powered violence!” yelled Katie Na, an organizer with Planet Over Profit Bay Area. “With their AI-driven war platforms, their surveillance tools, their automatic weapons systems, they’re really building up their infrastructure for this private, VC-backed, VC-owned military future.”

Brandon Lee, chair of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, said his concerns extend beyond the weaponization of technology for the U.S. military.

“They are training militaries around the world, particularly in the Philippines, where the military is using that technology to repress its people,” Lee said.

That includes himself — Lee, born and raised in San Francisco, moved to the Philippines to work as a human rights activist and was shot multiple times by government forces in 2019, leaving him paralyzed and using a wheelchair.

Wednesday’s protest was part of the broader Stop Billionaires Summer campaign, a Bay Area-based effort to confront billionaire-driven militarism, climate destruction and authoritarianism.

“We disagree with these characterizations of our company. Scale is proud of our work supporting U.S. national security, and we’re equally proud of the opportunities our platforms create for contributors around the world,” wrote Joe Osborne, a spokesman for Scale AI.