Debate over the future of AI spills onto the streets of San Francisco

Protesters opposed to the development of AI marched through the streets of San Francisco looking for more concrete action to put guardrails up in the development of the revolutionary technology.

SAN FRANCISCO - The three-day Dreamforce conference is wrapping up in San Francisco, and the topic top of mind for attendees, guest speakers and hosts is artificial intelligence.

As the conference was winding down, a protest against AI made its way through the streets of the city. As the conference ends, all eyes now look forward to the future and what role AI will play going forward.

Debate over the future of AI in San Francisco's streets

Dreamforce 2026 is in the books. While the aim of the conference is to let users of the consumer software company know about the newest features, the topic of artificial intelligence was ever present.

As the tech conference wound down, organizers of an anti-artificial intelligence protest took to the streets, marching from one AI company to another and finally to the steps of San Francisco's City Hall.

AI developing at an alarming rate

Speakers said AI is progressing at such a rapid rate addressing it is now an emergency and that political leaders need to step in.

"Systems committed what would be 17 felonies if humans had done…there [has] been no arrest, said anti-AI activist Guido Reichstadter. "There have been no charges. This has to end. We are in an emergency. The next step is bodies in the street."

While some tech leaders like Dario Amodei have been urging a slow-down, others, including Jensen Huang of Nvidia, have said there is no need for new regulation in this space.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said there are already regulations in place, and that companies need to adhere to those rules as they adapt.

Protesters said that isn't enough. They said the crisis is already beginning to play out. "They are endangering public safety right now through their race. Their irresponsible creation and AI systems have demonstrably been incapable of controlling," said Reichstadter.

At Dreamforce, attendees said they wanted to proceed with caution, that AI, is like any new tool that can be used for good or bad.

"There’s gonna be people who always just immediately look at all the ways that can go wrong, all the bad things that can happen, but then there are people who are also going to think about, how do we overcome that?" said attendee Mandy Auguste. "How do we not cause doomsday?"

"You just have to look at the pace of things and how rapidly it’s going. So I can see concerns beyond what people like me or other people that are here at Salesforce would be using agentic AI on large language, models, and things of that nature, so really for all of us that are tending here," said attendee Doug Keir. "It’s more like the security of the data making sure that the agent is doing what you’ve asked to do."