A lot can change between now and 100,000 pledges and/or human extinction. As of Feb 2026, it looks like this possible march is not endorsed or coordinated with Pause AI. I hope that anti-AI-extinction charities will work together where effective, and I was struck by this:
The current March is very centered around the book. I chose the current slogan/design expecting that, if the March ever became a serious priority, someone would put a lot more thought into what sort of slogans or policy asks are appropriate. The current page is meant to just be a fairly obvious thing to click “yes” on if you read the book and were persuaded.
My personal guess (not speaking for MIRI) is a protest this large necessarily needs to be a bigger tent than the current design implies, but figuring out the exact messaging is a moderately complex task.
It seems like Pause AI have put at least some thought into this moderately complex task. They also are building experience organizing real world protests that MIRI doesn’t have as far as I know. A possible implication is that MIRI thinks that Pause AI is badly run, and would rather act alone. Or that Pause AI thinks MIRI is badly run. Or MIRI is not investing the time in trying to organize endorsements until they have more pledges. Or something else.
I’m skeptical of this take:
Marches can be very powerful if they’re large, but can send the wrong message if they’re small.
The first protest of “School Strike for Climate” was a single 15yo girl, Greta Thunberg. Obvious bias is obvious. But it probably wasn’t going to send the wrong message as a small protest—if it had gone nowhere then I would never have heard about it. If tiny marches were sabotaging then I would expect more fake flag marches intended to have sparse attendance. Instead, I think small events don’t send any mass message, and potentially have other value.
Edit: after posting this I saw Raemon’s thoughts on this point, which I think address it.
MIRI was for many years dismissive of mass messaging approaches like marches. I wonder if this page is about providing an answer when people ask questions like “if you think everyone will die, why aren’t you organizing a march on Washington?”, rather than being a serious part of MIRI’s strategy for reducing AI risk. It doesn’t seem especially aligned with MIRI Comms is hiring (Dec 2025), which seems more focused on persuasion than mobilization.
Disclaimers: This is observations, not criticism. I have organized zero marches or protests.
A lot can change between now and 100,000 pledges and/or human extinction. As of Feb 2026, it looks like this possible march is not endorsed or coordinated with Pause AI. I hope that anti-AI-extinction charities will work together where effective, and I was struck by this:
It seems like Pause AI have put at least some thought into this moderately complex task. They also are building experience organizing real world protests that MIRI doesn’t have as far as I know. A possible implication is that MIRI thinks that Pause AI is badly run, and would rather act alone. Or that Pause AI thinks MIRI is badly run. Or MIRI is not investing the time in trying to organize endorsements until they have more pledges. Or something else.
I’m skeptical of this take:
The first protest of “School Strike for Climate” was a single 15yo girl, Greta Thunberg. Obvious bias is obvious. But it probably wasn’t going to send the wrong message as a small protest—if it had gone nowhere then I would never have heard about it. If tiny marches were sabotaging then I would expect more fake flag marches intended to have sparse attendance. Instead, I think small events don’t send any mass message, and potentially have other value.
Edit: after posting this I saw Raemon’s thoughts on this point, which I think address it.
MIRI was for many years dismissive of mass messaging approaches like marches. I wonder if this page is about providing an answer when people ask questions like “if you think everyone will die, why aren’t you organizing a march on Washington?”, rather than being a serious part of MIRI’s strategy for reducing AI risk. It doesn’t seem especially aligned with MIRI Comms is hiring (Dec 2025), which seems more focused on persuasion than mobilization.
Disclaimers: This is observations, not criticism. I have organized zero marches or protests.