\u201ckill switch\u201d<\/a> in case humans lose control of AI. <\/p>\n\u201cAI should expand opportunity \u2014 not come at the expense of workers and families,\u201d Newsom said last month in a statement. <\/p>\n
At the OpenAI developers\u2019 conference, held at a former military base in San Francisco, the company\u2019s chief executive, Sam Altman, expressed hope. <\/p>\n
![\"AI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791462742_35_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
AI protesters gather outside the OpenAI DevDay 2026 conference in San Francisco, on Tuesday, Sept 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
(AP Photo\/Josh Edelson)<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that the future, if we get this right, can be much more like a new renaissance than a new industrial revolution,\u201d he said on stage. \u201cAI should be about giving people more power over their own lives, more tools to create, learn, discover, expand knowledge.\u201d <\/p>\n
Outside, dozens of protesters held up signs that read \u201cNo Killer Robots for ICE,\u201d \u201cPeople over AI\u201d and \u201cWhere is your moral codex?\u201d <\/p>\n
They demanded an end to AI surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, as well as soaring San Francisco rents.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam Altman, get off it. Put people over profit,\u201d protesters chanted.<\/p>\n
Berkeley resident Matt Nichols came to the protest dressed up as a killer robot holding a chainsaw. \u201cAI is being used to move us toward a surveillance state with no accountability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lucas Lu walked by the protest, guiding two black-and-white humanoid robots. His employer rents out the robots for events such as OpenAI\u2019s conference. He led them away from the vocal crowd. <\/p>\n
Although some people fear AI because they\u2019re worried it could lead to killer robots like those in \u201cThe Terminator,\u201d Lu said AI can be helpful. <\/p>\n
![\"Norman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791462743_6_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Norman Weekes teaches AI to seniors participating in tech week at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland.<\/p>\n
(Paul Kuroda\/For The Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually good at research,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I won\u2019t depend on AI to make any decision for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Oakland, in one event held at Mills College \u2014 part of Northeastern University\u2019s global system \u2014 titled \u201cSenior Technology Day: Lifelong Learning and Digital Inclusion,\u201d students and senior citizens learned and taught one another about AI. <\/p>\n
Participants of all ages expressed concerns about the technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s your decision in regard to whether or not you use it,\u201d said Norman Weekes, the AI literacy educator and entrepreneur who presented the topic to the group. \u201cIf you never use AI, that\u2019s great, but you should understand it because … it\u2019s going to affect people you love, if not yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
On one hand, people can use AI to build websites or find activities to do. On the other, law enforcement can also request AI conversations, courts can subpoena AI chat logs and chatbots can provide inaccurate information while also flattering people, he said.<\/p>\n
Karin Kelly-Givens, 72, uses an AI bot for health questions such as how to understand her blood-test results. Her friends use Gemini to comparison shop for pricey items such as washing machines. But she also grapples with how to use AI. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s the borderline?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhat should you not say? What is OK?\u201d <\/p>\n
Hayward resident Jason Hughes, 73, downloaded ChatGPT and Claude for the first time. \u201cI might use them both to compare or get more information,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Fremont High School student May Gutierrez, 17, said that although teachers are concerned about AI being used to plagiarize, they\u2019re also using it themselves. The aspiring designer has safety and environmental concerns about AI, so she\u2019s holding off for now. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I\u2019m too much of an optimist, but I hopefully believe that people will see the consequences of AI and not necessarily get rid of it, but work toward making it better,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
![\"Heven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791462743_778_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Heven Adugna, 17, teaches Diana Young, 82, with her iPhone at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland.<\/p>\n
(Paul Kuroda \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
AIMS College Prep High School student Heven Adugna, who aspires to become a physician assistant, said she uses AI chatbots for research and to help better understand math concepts. Although people are using AI in healthcare, she thinks technology can\u2019t replace everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would much rather have a sincere person telling me what\u2019s wrong than a robot, so from that aspect, I don\u2019t think AI can really take over,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Olugbala, the Oakland resident who wanted to get Google Gemini off her phone, said she wants to talk to real people using her voice, not bots. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to have more human contact,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to go back and take every opportunity to sit down and get on the phone and talk.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco Bay Area residents, living in the beating heart of the artificial intelligence boom, are just as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2007,790,1804,19222,1335,190955,9925,3412,3408,592,11276,101,190956,103,190957,102,104,106,105,173884,1970],"class_list":["post-489180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-ai","tag-community-event","tag-company","tag-control","tag-development","tag-killer-robot","tag-last-month","tag-meta","tag-openai","tag-people","tag-protester","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-bay-resident","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-last-week","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-tech-worker","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}