![\"Alexander](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260318-AI-targeted-by-musk-vsb-1715-ca680f.jpg\")
Alexander McCoy, head of the liberal coalition for Humans First, answers audience questions at St. Michael’s Church Tuesday evening in New York.Jared Perlo\/ NBC<\/p>\nIn a musty, multipurpose auditorium at the top of a winding staircase, close to 75 New Yorkers of many political stripes, from MAGA conservatives to progressive environmentalists, gathered Tuesday night to share their worries about the concentrated wealth and power steering today\u2019s rapid AI development.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtificial intelligence is not a problem of the future. It\u2019s a source of power right now, to do great good and to do great harm,\u201d proclaimed Jeremy Ornstein, one of the organizers, at the start of the meeting. \u201cBillionaires will lay their claim to AI and say it shouldn\u2019t be in public control, and tyrants will lay their claim to AI and deny our fundamental freedoms.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s another opportunity here. We the people, whoever we are, will lay our own claim to this technology,\u201d Ornstein said, \u201cand carve a path that protects people.\u201d\u201cThat\u2019s our movement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alexander McCoy, head of the liberal coalition for Humans First, answers audience questions at St. Michael’s Church Tuesday evening in New York.Jared Perlo\/ NBC<\/p>\n
The event, held at St. Michael\u2019s Church in Manhattan and advertised online, was the latest in a series of nationwide events held by Humans First<\/a>, a group that aims to become a grassroots movement giving voice to the growing number of Americans wary of the fast-moving AI industry. Its current flagship campaign<\/a> focuses on getting politicians to reject financial contributions from major AI companies and their venture capital backers.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s pitch \u2014 that AI should be subject to more democratic control and less \u201cbig money\u201d influence \u2014 is already colliding with a broader, increasingly ideological fight over AI regulation. That clash surfaced online this week when White House AI czar and venture capitalist David Sacks shared a critical essay about Humans First and Elon Musk echoed it, revealing how even a nascent group hosting small gatherings can become a new front in the AI power struggle.<\/p>\n Humans First calls itself nonpartisan and has members who are both staunchly progressive and conservative activists: Ornstein was a key organizer on climate change issues as part of the anti-Trump Sunrise Movement<\/a> from 2018-2022. The leader of the left-wing coalitions for Humans First, Alexander McCoy, is a former Marine and climate advocate who helped organize events for Kamala Harris during her presidential run.<\/p>\n Amy Kremer, director of conservative coalitions<\/a> for Humans First, previously co-founded the Women for Trump organization and led grassroots organizing<\/a> for the Republican National Committee, while Humans First senior fellow Joe Allen reported on AI with conservative firebrand Steve Bannon for his \u201cWar Room\u201d podcast. <\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s event drew attendees from disparate backgrounds, including engineers at AI companies worried about how the technology will change human creativity and curious neighbors wondering whether the price of electricity will increase as a result of data center expansions.Yet half an hour into the meeting, Sacks, one the White House\u2019s leading AI architects, shared an unvarnished critique<\/a> of Humans First on X, calling the group \u201ca censorship power play\u201d in a post<\/a> that was viewed over 21 million times. Elon Musk shared Sacks\u2019 post<\/a> early Wednesday morning, calling the piece \u201ctroubling.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk is the founder and CEO of xAI, which is racing to develop advanced AI systems as smart as or more capable than humans<\/a>.<\/p>\n The long-form article shared by Sacks was authored by Jordan Schachtel, a conservative writer. The article claimed Humans First was set up to lure in conservative supporters by people with strong links to Effective Altruism, a social movement that aims to support causes and allocate resources based on evidence of positive impact. Many effective altruists are skeptical of the speed of today\u2019s AI development and have long called for regulation to guide it. <\/p>\n Schachtel wrote that while attempting to appeal to conservatives, the effective altruism movement, and the subset of members focused on AI safety efforts, has \u201ca structural problem when it comes to conservative America. Its donor class is all Bay Area progressives. Its flagship organizations are institutionally associated with the Big Tech left.\u201d <\/p>\n As a result, Schachtel said that members of an effective altruism organization, the Center for AI Safety, founded Humans First to be a sort of Trojan horse to make AI safety issues more palatable to a conservative political audience. The project leaders specifically targeted Allen, the Bannon ally, to bolster its conservative credentials, Schachtel said. <\/p>\n Allen vocally rejected the charges that he had been unwittingly recruited for the effort and instead said that Schachtel\u2019s post<\/a> \u201craises questions about shadowy influence operations\u201d for its disbelief that progressives and conservatives could unite on an issue like AI. <\/p>\n \u201cI have not been head-hunted and stooged,\u201d Allen told NBC News. \u201cI\u2019ve been at this for many years. The people who count know what I am about. Any attempt to coopt me, or tell me what to say, will fail.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260318-AI-targeted-by-musk-vsb-1710-bd62d7.jpg\")
Poster in the lobby of St. Michael’s Church in New York.Jared Perlo\/ NBC<\/p>\n
![\"Jeremy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260318-AI-targeted-by-musk-vsb-1713-c35de2.jpg\")
Jeremy Ornstein, a movement strategist at Humans First, explains the main campaign points with participants in New York.Jared Perlo<\/p>\n