Joanie Lemercier and ATR Oppose the AI Summit in Paris

Press Release – Anti-Tech Resistance – January 27, 2025

"New technologies inspire increased distrust in me."

– Joanie Lemercier, Libération

Together with visual artist and activist Joanie Lemercier, members of the neo-Luddite movement Anti-Tech Resistance (ATR) projected several warning messages ("AI Kills," "Big Brother is watching you," and "Anti-Tech Resistance") onto the Grand Palais on the night of January 27 to denounce the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Action Summit scheduled at this venue on February 10 and 11.

In its official presentation, this summit promotes ethical AI "serving the public interest" as well as international regulation. But how can we trust the sincerity of the organizers who have chosen to invite openly anti-democratic and anti-regulation figures such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk, or even the authoritarian Indian leader Narendra Modi (who uses the Tek Fog app to misinform his people)? In total, nearly a thousand heads of state, CEOs—including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI—researchers, NGOs, and artists have been invited to this propaganda operation.

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Beyond the guests, it is AI itself that we challenge due to future existential threats and the already considerable damage to freedom, society and nature:

• AI-powered surveillance and control technologies significantly strengthen authoritarian regimes in India, Egypt, China, and Russia, while liberal regimes in the West are also shifting towards authoritarianism;
• AI reinforces the global hegemony of a handful of ultra-rich individuals and multinational corporations and intensifies competition between nuclear superpowers;
• According to some studies, AI could replace or profoundly alter 70% of jobs (in the United States and Europe, 300 million positions are at risk of automation due to AI);
• Experts such as Geoffrey Hinton believe that AI represents a top-tier existential threat to humanity;
• The proliferation of data centers necessary for AI development is causing energy consumption to skyrocket, potentially leading our societies to face an "energy wall";
• AI is already being used in eugenic/transhumanist research projects such as synthetic biology and artificial wombs.

For all these reasons, and as part of the #ArtificialIntelligenceUniversalDictatorship campaign, ATR is organizing "The AI Counter-Summit: Why and How to Act Against AI Development," featuring several events, including a day of conferences on February 8. Notably, the Anti-Industrial Assembly is also calling for a gathering on Sunday, February 9, at 2 PM in front of the Grand Palais. The already enormous cost to our societies, as well as the chronic inability of governments to regulate technological runaway, compel us to demand a complete halt to the development and deployment of artificial intelligence.

Founded in 2022, ATR is a legal and non-violent neo-Luddite movement practicing civil disobedience. It advocates for the shutdown of the techno-industrial system, the only chance for the human species to escape extinction.

Anti-Tech Resistance

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