Who is Wynd Kaufmyn, first person jailed for protesting AI?
What's the story
Wynd Kaufmyn, a 69-year-old activist from Berkeley, California, is believed to have become the first person to be jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence (AI). She was convicted by a jury for her role in a protest last year where members of the group StopAI chained and locked OpenAI's headquarters doors. The action was taken in opposition to the pursuit of artificial superintelligence.
Legal battle
Kaufmyn staged a sit-in protest in February 2025
Kaufmyn staged a sit-in protest in February 2025, refusing to leave despite facing multiple misdemeanor charges.
She was convicted in June for interfering with a business, trespassing with intent to interfere with a business, unlawful assembly, and refusal to disperse at a riot.
On Friday, sheriff's officers handcuffed her as fellow campaigners sang: "Rise up, rise up and join us. Do not let the tech bros destroy us."
Official response
Brooke Jenkins says guilty verdict sends a resounding message
Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, said the guilty verdict sends "a resounding message rejecting the notion that protesters can endanger public safety as a means to an end."
As Kaufmyn was led out from court, her supporters called out: "Stop AI" and: "Free Wynd."
Justification
Kaufmyn thought she had the right to act
Kaufmyn argued that her protest was necessary and she thought she had the right to act in order to prevent greater harm.
Since the lobby sit-in last year, some of the biggest AI labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have reported their models escaping the confinements of experiments.
This week, US Senator Bernie Sanders demanded tech leaders pause AI development over fears it could lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people.
Call for action
Leading AI professor testified in Kaufmyn's defense
Kaufmyn's message to the chief executives of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta was "regain your humanity."
She said her target audience was ordinary people with a message: "stop the progress of this technology. Let's get a global ban on the race to superintelligence."
Professor Stuart Russell, a leading AI professor at UC Berkeley and president of the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI, testified in Kaufmyn's defense.